Red Tape
by Lorelai Lui
Summary: AU. Bakugo fulfilled his dream of becoming a police officer, unknowingly sacrificing every connection he had with his friends and family in the process. Only after meeting an old classmate and impulsively trying to help her does he realise that he was the one who needed to be saved all along. Kacchako/Bakuraka
1. Chapter 1 - Black Maria

**Summary: Bakugo fulfilled his dream of being a police officer, unknowingly sacrificing every connection he had with his friends and family in the process. Only after meeting an old classmate and impulsively trying to help her does he realise that he was the one who needed to be saved all along.**

 **Katsuki Bakugo x Ochaco Uraraka**

 **Chapter 1: Black Maria (Prologue)**

…

"Bakugo, are you ready to roll?"

Katsuki wiped the sweat and rain from his brow with a towel, watching as the perps lined up and piled into the wagon. They busted a group of bikers cooking and dealing meth inside some hole in the wall bar. Not even the rain could wash away the tell-tale stench that wafted through the joint from the large-scale cooking within the 'lab'.

"Nah, I'll just wait around until we finish up." Katsuki regarded the dark circles and pale face of his partner. "You look like shit man. Take some time off and go home to your wife and kids."

He didn't wait for him to respond and took shelter from the rain elsewhere. From all his years working, he knew there were two types of people in the force. Cops that worked for years and hardened for the job or normal people that burnt out too quickly and moved to a safe desk job. This guy wouldn't last the year.

"Sir, please… I'm not that kind of girl."

Katsuki's sharp focus narrowed in on a scuffle in a nearby alleyway. The woman's voice was soft and oddly familiar. He stepped carefully, peering behind the filthy cool brick to get a closer view of what was going down. The street lights barely reached the dark abyss and he had to adjust to see what was happening.

Some drunk was harassing a young woman and from the way she was dressed, it didn't take a genius to realise she was a prostitute. She wore a satin red Chinese cheongsam that showcased her stunning legs, surprisingly scar and bruise free for a working girl. She tried to calm the man down and back away, but he wasn't taking the hint.

"C'mon baby, I got money!" The drunk tried to clumsily grab her but she backed away firmly.

"Mister if you try to touch me I'm going to have to use self-defence!" She said, her voice quivering as she tried to keep up her strong façade. "I don't want to hurt you, but-"

"Listen you whore!" He growled, grabbing her arm with his fist. "I want to fuck and whether you want it or not doesn't matter as long as I throw you a buck when I finish!"

Katsuki threw down his towel and was already running to intervene, but before he even got close enough to throw a punch in, the girl turned and yanked the drunk's arm over her shoulder and threw him to the ground. The man was so dazed he pissed himself before passing out.

Katsuki suddenly got a weird feeling of déjà vu.

It seemed like a century ago but it was more accurately a decade. He still had an ego even today, but at fifteen he especially thought he was hot shit. The memory of what led up to the moment was still kind of hazy, but he distinctly recalled pissing a girl off enough that she threw him to the ground.

The feeling of weightlessness, like your body was floating in space, all ending in a second when inertia and gravity kicked in and you fell straight on your ass. He could remember that feeling like it was yesterday.

The woman turned to face him and it all came rushing back. He would never forget those smooth round cheeks and big doe eyes brimming with infuriating optimism.

"Kacchan?"

He hadn't been called that since high school.

….

Katsuki grinded his forehead against the ceramic wall as the hot water beat down on his head. He didn't know why he invited her back to his place. It was a weirdly impulsive decision and he half expected her to say no, but she didn't.

Groaning, Katsuki reached for the towel but noticed he'd forgotten something. He kind of just rushed to the shower straight away to have an excuse to think about things for a second, and forgot to get a spare change of clothes.

He was so used to walking around as naked as the day he was born ever since he left home and got his own place that he forgot about ever getting dressed in the bathroom. There was no way he was getting back into that uniform again so he bit the bullet and opened the door.

The minute the door swung open, he was immediately assaulted by Ochaco's lithe body as she pounced on him, wrapping her legs around his waist and holding his head to her breasts as she hugged him close. "You've grown so much, Kacchan!"

Katsuki's face reddened. With the softness of her breasts in his face, he hoped she didn't notice how much he thought the feeling was mutual.

Ochaco had grown, too. She was always small and kind of chubby as a teenager and now all of that baby fat had moulded into soft curves and supple skin. That dorky girl that hung out with dorky Deku was now everything that drove him crazy wrapped up in a neat little package.

If she were anyone else, he would take that as an invitation to throw her down on the bed and show her just how much he had _really_ grown, but knowing what little he did from the girl she was in high school, he knew that she was socially inept and as much as it pissed him off, she probably didn't realise that he was a hot-blooded man instead of the kid he used to be.

Slowly, Ochaco slid down and stood on her feet, resting her hand against his chest for support. Her touch rested longer than necessary, as she stared up at him in awe.

He wasn't the kind of guy that liked to follow someone else's pace, so he tried to take control before the situation got out of hand.

"What were you doing in an alleyway on that side of town dressed like that anyways, round face?" Katsuki cleared his throat as he tried to create some distance.

"I can't believe you can't remember my name…" She pouted. "It's Uraraka Ochaco – not 'round face'."

Of course, he knew her name.

Grunting, Katsuki slipped a shirt over his head and stepped into a pair of sweatpants, shimmying underneath the towel. It was the first time he got changed like that and he made a note to never do it again.

He always remembered her, but she was Deku's girl and it was best he kept his distance. The reasons were different then, but his intentions were the same. Right now, she was happy to see a familiar face after something traumatic and she would probably be more guarded in the morning.

"I was uhmm - working." Ochaco frowned, dropping her eyes to the floor. "Please don't tell anyone about this. I don't want anyone from the past thinking, 'Oh, what happened to Uraraka?'… and then you saying something and them getting the wrong idea or something like that."

"Pfft."

Katsuki opened the fridge to get a beer, wondering if he should chuck her one too. Mulling it over, he decided to open the can and hand it to her, while he leaned against the counter and took a long sip of the cool brew.

Ochaco nursed her drink silently while he tried to figure out what to say to her. It had been so long since he'd talked to someone out of uniform that it was harder than he originally thought.

"You really think that's going to come up in conversation?" Katsuki didn't know why he was so irked by what she said. "You really think I'm going to say to someone – Hey dude, that dorky round-faced girl from high school is a whore now."

As he raised his eyes, the look on her face was enough feedback for him to understand he fucked up. Katsuki knew that she wasn't the kind of girl to cry over something stupid he said, but that wasn't the point. He didn't want to hurt her. He just didn't know what to say.

"I don't really talk to anyone from high school anyways." He said, cautious with his choice of words. "I don't really give a shit what you decide to do with your life- urgh!"

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he groaned.

"Fuck. That's not what I meant."

He could plan an intricate operation or a bust, take down multiple guys coming at him at once and chase down even the fastest criminals on foot without breaking a sweat but he couldn't reassure a girl.

"It's okay, Bakugo." Ochaco laughed quietly to herself, although the smile didn't reach her eyes. "I always knew you weren't the type to talk about other people's lives or gossip or anything like that. It was wrong for me to even suggest you would. I trust you."

Katsuki relaxed, "If you really feel that way, can you tell me what is going on? Are you in any trouble?"

"I don't want to say anything incriminating to a cop!" Ochaco laughed, taking a shy sip of her beer. When his expression did not change she added, "That was a joke by the way."

It wasn't that Katsuki didn't think it wasn't funny, his focus was more on the fact that for once in his life he forgot about work. "I'm off duty so don't worry about it."

"It's a long story."

Ochaco sat down on the couch while Katsuki ordered pizza. His workout regime made him pretty ravenous and usually he ordered enough to feed a carnivorous elephant. The only other thing he had in his fridge was beer and he didn't know how much women usually ate, so he decided to splurge a bit.

Sitting down next to her, he left another can of beer on the coffee table for her while he rested his arm on the back of the couch over her shoulder. Even though he was used to sitting like that with a girl around, it didn't feel right and he made himself uncomfortable doing so. She seemed cold in her skimpy dress, so he sighed and got up as quickly as he sat down, digging out one of his old university jumpers from a box in the corner.

"Huh?" She squeaked, as he pulled her arms up and dressed her like she was a doll. The jumper fell down to her knees and he wished that it hid her sex appeal, but seeing her in one of his old jumpers was somehow even more erotic. "Thanks, but I'm okay, really."

Katsuki didn't know if her cheery façade or his sexual frustration pissed him off more, but it was hard to look at her. More to the point, he didn't want some pimple faced pizza boy rocking up and looking at her either.

The buzzer rang and she said on reflex, "I'll get it!"

Without restraint, Katsuki grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the door. He answered, trying to block as much of the kid's view as possible, which wasn't hard from how big he was. Balancing the boxes in one arm, he paid the kid and slammed the door in record time.

They stood in awkward silence as Katsuki laid out each box on the coffee table while he pretended to be confident by keeping his hands busy. He could count the number of times he had ever felt self-conscious on one hand, but for some reason her awkwardness rubbed off on him.

Opening each box, Katsuki waited for her to eat a slice before he got her to talk. Clearing his throat, he got her attention. "We've got pizza, beer and no more interruptions. Tell me what you were doing in that street corner."

"I know you probably hear this a lot, but it isn't what you think." She said slowly, sipping from her beer while her eyes met his. "They said that strippers get paid a lot, but my first day on the job kind of got interrupted by something."

"A drug bust." Katsuki filled in the blanks. "I guess everyone made themselves scarce."

"I never actually got to perform so I guess I'm not even a stripper let alone a prostitute." Ochaco smiled with a private chuckle. "Although I was asked once to do something or other with a video camera but I'm a little clumsy with technology…"

Even though she was dressed as she was, she was the same old Uraraka Ochaco she was in high school. Usually that would be a bad thing, but personally he was glad that was the case.

"What do you need the money for?" Katsuki said, as sharp as ever.

"I've been trying to send as much money home as possible." Ochaco wrung her hands on his jumper, her downcast eyes scanning the past. "After I dropped out of school, I've been working flat out to try to send money to help my parents. I told them that I found a successful entry-level job, but I just couldn't keep up with sending more money for every 'promotion' I lied about. You know how you just try to impress someone and it all just comes out so wrong and you don't know what to do to fix it?"

Yes, he knew the feeling - but he wasn't ever going to admit that.

"Why do you need to send money to your parents?" He felt comfortable moving a little closer after the slight buzz from the booze. "I always thought they owned their own business and did alright."

"I knew you remembered stuff about me!" Ochaco said, nudging him on the shoulder playfully. "I just had to keep you drinking to get your guard down for you to admit it."

"Heh." Katsuki scoffed. That was the exact tactic he tried to use on her, so he couldn't exactly be annoyed about her playing him. "Don't change the subject – it's not every day you'll get me interested in other people's lives."

"Well, I don't really know how to answer that. Why else do you try to help your parents other than just because you love them?" Ochaco said, waving her hand like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You'd do the same, wouldn't you Bakugo?"

Katsuki really couldn't remember the last time he talked to his parents, let alone did anything dutiful like help them out financially. At first, his mother held on and tried to badger him about his cleaning and eating habits, but his father held her back and let him have his independence. The problem was that since then, he hadn't made an effort to reconnect with home.

"So, let me get this straight. You tried to make easy money stripping so that you could send the cash to your parents to help them out?" Katsuki asked, sceptically. If it were any other person the story would be ludicrous, but this seemed pretty standard Ochaco. "Am I missing anything here?"

"When I hear it from you it sounds so dumb, but there really aren't that many ways for a high school drop-out to make good money." Ochaco's head rested against the back of the couch, her hair tickling his arm. "I was told that stripper money is like getting drafted to your favourite sports team. You make good money when you're young, but the older you get…"

Katsuki turned his head to suppress a laugh. She caught him off guard and he realised how long it had been since he let his guard down. Not that she would have noticed, because she was already pretty tipsy off two beers, which was oddly endearing. It was more a reflex then anything, but he had this weird urge to just – he _hated_ to admit it, but to protect her.

"I'm not really into giving advice, but since you're such a train wreck I'm going to make an exception." Katsuki said, trying and failing to drop the smirk.

"I will warn you that I don't have a cent on me right now and the only way I can pay for that advice is with my body." She giggled taking another clumsy swig of her drink.

"Payment first then."

Cautiously, Ochaco crawled closer and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He didn't reciprocate and sat as still as possible, while she rested her cheek on his shoulder. "You thought I meant something dirty but what I really meant was hugs."

He sighed, waiting for her to sit back and let go, but she held on lazily regardless. "If it's so important to you, just crash here and look for work that doesn't involve taking your clothes off for money. As long as you don't get in my way or piss me off, I'm not going to hound you for rent or kick you out on your ass."

"Thanks, Kacchan." Ochaco smiled lazily as her eyes fell shut and her breathing slowly came in long, deep breaths.

When he knew for sure she was asleep, he lifted her up and held her in his arms for a moment as he regarded her face. Ochaco was still as small as he remembered and felt even lighter than she looked.

Just for tonight, he would sleep on the couch and let her have the bed.

…

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	2. Chapter 2 - Danger Zone: Part 1

**Chapter 2: Danger Zone**

 **Hi everyone! Thank you for the amazing reviews, they really brightened my day and motivated me! For some reason, I tend to work super fast when I get lots of encouragement, so I really appreciate it!**

 **Just a warning, this chapter is split into two parts because I felt that things would be too lengthy otherwise.**

 **I was also wondering how you would all like the update schedule. Twice weekly? Weekly? Fortnightly? Monthly? Let me know :D**

….

Katsuki could hear his ring tone cut through the drone of the shower as he hummed along with the verses. It had been his ring tone for years and he never got tired of it. It was the theme song of his favourite movie of all time and every time he heard it, the song brought back so much nostalgia.

His reverie was cut short when his phone suddenly went silent.

"Hello?" He heard Ochaco's voice outside the door, as he yanked back the shower curtain and hastily wrapped the towel around his waist. "No, Kacchan isn't here right now. He's in the shower."

Smacking his palm against his forehead, he realised that he would never live that nickname down. The only place that ever called him on his mobile was work and since he hadn't shown up today, it was probably the chief. Almost snapping the door off the hinges, Katsuki raced out and yanked the phone from her hand. "Sir?"

Listening anxiously on the other end, he watched Ochaco candidly as she walked around his apartment as if she'd lived there her entire life, wearing only the skimpy red dress from last night.

"I was calling just to make sure nothing happened to you last night since you're usually in by now." The chief sounded jovial and Katsuki wondered if hell had frozen over. "I take it you're not coming in today."

"No." Katsuki answered, watching as Ochaco bent over, looking through the bottom cupboards. The silk showcased her plump ass and he couldn't help but let his eyes trail down along the length of her bare legs. Shaking his head, he turned away and wedged the phone between his ear and shoulder as he hastily got into a pair of sweatpants and pulled a shirt over his head. "I think I might need to take some time off for a while."

Katsuki had a weird habit of needing to walk and pace while talking on the phone. He knew that Ochaco was probably itching to do something dorky like sing while she fiddled around in the kitchen, so he headed outside before his boss had more ammunition to embarrass him about.

"Do it!" His boss's laugh was so deep, it rolled like thunder. "You haven't taken a single day off since you started work. I don't want HR up my ass for overworking you anyway."

"Yeah, you'll have the higher ups up your ass instead wondering why the performance has dropped." Katsuki wasn't joking but his boss seemed to think he was a comedian.

As he looked out onto the crowded street, he noticed a group of homeless men crowded around a dumpster in the alley. Privately, he hoped to god they weren't shooting up or smoking since it meant more work busting dealers. On closer inspection, they all seemed to have good taste, because each and every one of them wore a tee-shirt he had bundled in a cardboard box somewhere in his closet. "What the fuck is going on…"

"What was that?" His boss asked, the sound of a pen tapping against his desk.

"Er… Nothing." Katsuki crossed the street to get a closer look at what was going on, hoping it was a weird coincidence and he wasn't going crazy.

"So, who was the girl anyway?"

"I've got to go sir, but I'll fill you in when I come back to work." Katsuki said as Ochaco strode past him, her arms stacked with the microwavable meals he had horded in his freezer.

"Don't think I'll forget about it… Kacchan."

Katsuki smashed his phone against the pavement on reflex, creating a web of cracked glass on the screen. Back when he was a kid, he circled all the swear words in the dictionary and he put that to good practice while he raged, inspecting his broken phone.

Ochaco paid him no mind, handing out coffee and food to the vagrants with a big grin stretched across her face.

Stomping over, he did not give a shit if he got glass or needles in his feet. He peered near the dumpster and noticed boxes of his old clothes with bums rifling through like it was a gold rush. "Who said you could give away my fucking stuff?"

"All your clothes are old and have holes in them so I thought they're not really good enough for you to wear but still wearable so why not give them to people who really need them?" She said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Also, those freezer meals are icky and I need to go shopping so that we can buy real food."

Katsuki held the bridge of his nose and started counting so he wouldn't explode. Then he thought about how self-righteous she looked and did it anyway.

"Cut that good girl shit you bitch, it doesn't fucking work on me!" Katsuki yelled in her face, "Let me ask again. Who the fuck gave you the right to throw away my stuff?"

"It's a free country!" She put her hands on her hips, glaring back at him.

Katsuki stared, dumbfounded as she puffed up her cheeks and stood her ground.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I don't know. Freedom of speech!" Ochaco puffed up. "I'm free to say what I want, even if it doesn't have to have anything to do with what we're yelling about!"

"For fucks sake." Katsuki put a hand to his forehead and huffed. "What are we yelling about?"

A crowd started to linger, watching their dispute like it was some daytime soap opera. This probably didn't look good to a bystander – a man not wearing shoes, yelling at a girl dressed like a hooker. It was a recipe for disaster.

Before some _hero_ intervened, Katsuki grabbed her by the hand and dragged her back into their apartment, all the while real fucking livid. He slammed the door behind them and glared down at her, his breathing heavy as he tried to control his rage.

"If you're going to be mad we might as well fight it out then!" Ochaco said, posing like she was Muhammad Ali.

"Huh?"

Ochaco swung her leg out, knocking him to the ground. It was a lucky shot because she caught him off guard, and he quickly fumbled and gained his bearings as they wrestled together on the carpet.

If this was a perp, he would be on point at holding them down and restraining them, but since he was so stunned by how the situation escalated, he slipped and squeezed her breast instead of locking her elbow.

"Mmmhn!"

She wasn't wearing a bra.

Katsuki's face turned red and he pulled away quickly. He pressed his palm over his nose to cover his embarrassment, the softness of her breast still present in his senses. Without mercy, Ochaco pushed him back and pinned him against the carpet, holding his wrists over his head.

As she looked down at him with triumph and satisfaction, his shame took a back seat to wanting to wipe that smile off her face. He broke from her hold easily and pinned her the same way she pinned him, holding her wrists above her head while he lay sandwiched between her thighs.

"Domestic violence! Call the police!" Ochaco squealed, laughing.

"I am the police!" Katsuki roared.

She laughed so hard that her eyes teared up and as Katsuki looked down at her flushed face, sweet and pink with laughter. He felt an insane longing to kiss her. If they stayed that way for a moment longer, he probably wouldn't have been able to help himself, but the intense expression on his face must have been enough to scare her as she sobered, staring up at him searchingly with her big brown eyes.

Sometimes when they were still in school, he would catch her staring at him like that – really staring – and he would always be a little afraid because she seemed to be able to see right through him.

"I'm sorry I threw away your clothes. I wanted to be useful because I'm really grateful that you are letting me stay with you and I kind of went a little overboard." Ochaco smiled sheepishly.

Katsuki excelled at everything he did, including holding grudges. It wasn't every day that he genuinely forgot that he was angry about something and just let it go. The problem was he didn't want her to know that she had succeeded in making him forgive her.

"Are you still mad at me?"

"Yes."

Katsuki wanted her to really be sorry and grovel at his feet and beg for his forgiveness. Instead, she rubbed her hands against his cheeks and parted his mouth with her fingers into a forced smile.

Growling, he got up and sat on the couch with his arms crossed, trying to create some distance while he mustered the emotional energy to feel angry again.

"Come on…" Ochaco coaxed, massaging his shoulders and smoothing out all the knots. "If you tell me what you like to eat I'll make your favourite food and I'll even give you one free pass for me to be your slave."

Without realising, his shoulders had locked up with stress and he forgot what it felt like to feel relaxed. Katsuki closed his eyes, melting under her touch as the burden on his shoulders became weightless with the rub of her thumbs.

Naturally, the thought of being able to do whatever he wanted to her was appealing enough that he would waive his rage, but only for today. He smiled sadistically, thinking of the things he could get her to do like walk outside in her underwear or even shave all her hair off.

"What's a top gun by the way?" Ochaco asked, picking up a black cap lying next to him on the couch.

"Hm?" Katsuki grunted, feigning disinterest. It was only the greatest movie of all time and an absolute classic, transcending the action genre into something even greater, showing what it really meant to kick ass and be the best, no matter what. "I think it's just some old movie from the eighties."

"I know!" She said, digging her fingers even deeper into his shoulders. "We can watch Top Gun! I haven't seen it before."

"Hold up, before we do that you're going to change into something less skanky." Katsuki said, reluctantly getting up from the couch and rifling through a nearby box. "Score. You'll fit in these."

He rolled an old sweater and a pair of jeans into a tight ball, throwing it to her like it was a basketball. Guys wouldn't look twice at her if she wore this, and it made going out together easier for his sanity.

"I'm not a skank." Ochaco pouted, slipping the jeans underneath her dress.

"Hate to burst your bubble, but I just got to second base in less than a day and I haven't even taken you out yet." Katsuki said with a smirk.

"I haven't had my first kiss, let alone fooled around or done stuff with a _boy_ …" Ochaco spoke like boys were still gross and had cooties. "I bet you haven't kissed a girl either!"

"Are you shitting me?' Katsuki was shocked. "Of course, I've kissed girls. I've fucked them too. You realise that we're twenty-five, right? Even that nerd Deku has fucked girls before. Well, at least one girl."

Ochaco's face fell and he instantly regretted bringing up Deku. He didn't know what went on between them – probably nothing given how awkward and weird they were back in the day – but it seemed like it bothered her.

Katsuki shrugged. She would get over it and forget about it when they went shopping.

….

Loading the back of the car with a full wardrobe for both himself and her, he let out all his frustration by slamming the boot with a bang.

Ochaco still wasn't over what he said.

Spending the money didn't bother him. He was smart enough with money that he wasn't living paycheque to paycheque and he had bought his apartment and car outright. He even bought himself a new phone after smashing up the old one without making a dint in his savings.

What pissed him off was Ochaco was floating around on auto pilot the entire time, not caring what he threw in for her to wear. He could have thrown in a g string (which he did) and she wouldn't have noticed.

He thought women loved shopping for clothes, but hey – she wasn't exactly a normal girl. Maybe buying groceries would lighten her mood.

"I like spicy food by the way." He mentioned casually, as she hopped in the car.

Turning on the engine, Katsuki looked over at her quizzically when she didn't respond.

That's when he heard the sound.

The sound was a cross between listening to a revving super car and an animal dying, painfully. He turned off the motor, wondering how many miles ago he last took the car in for maintenance, but when he looked at the gauge it wasn't that long ago. Weirdly enough, he was relieved that the noise still persisted even when he turned off the engine.

Turning to Ochaco to see if she knew where it was coming from and seeing the quivering, screwed up look on her face as she tried to hold back tears, he felt like a total idiot.

"Kacchan do you have a girlfriend?" She sobbed, the sound reverberating from her chest as she tried desperately not to cry. "Is that why you had a spare toothbrush in your shower room?"

"What? No, I-"

He had a spare toothbrush because he had a habit of wearing them out too quickly.

"VRRRRRRRRRRR…"

Ochaco dry heaved so loudly that he could barely hear himself talk.

The reverberating howling died down as she ran out of oxygen and he breathed a sigh of relief. Then she took in a deep breath, and it seemed to pitch even louder than before. Unable to cope, he smashed his forehead against the horn. If she was going to kill his eardrums, he might as well have the choice of ruining them himself instead.

"S-Stop drawing attention to me!" Ochaco whined, hiccupping as she shook him. "People are l-looking through the window and I hate people seeing me uh-upset."

Taking his forehead off the horn, she started to calm down gradually, but the moment he heard her whimper again, he slammed his forehead down against the horn and blasted it. If the impact was any harder, he probably would have triggered the airbags.

He felt her fingers pull his sleeve and he lifted his head to look at her. They were in a stalemate right now as she tried to compose herself, but the moment she calmed down he was going to let her have it.

"I'm really happy you took me shopping and bought me lots of pretty clothes because I've never been able to spend this much money on myself before and it's not that I don't appreciate you for that." Ochaco rambled quickly, her cheeks and nose red. "I just don't want to get in your way if you have a serious girlfriend and I'll leave straight away so that I don't get between your relationship…"

Katsuki was so ready to yell at her that he was almost bursting, but he tried to cool his head. Instead of all the choice words he had ready when he was blaring the horn, he got her in a headlock and rustled her hair as roughly as he could manage without setting her hair on fire with the friction.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not really the relationship type." Katsuki said, letting his arm rest over her shoulder as they sat in comfortable silence.

Ochaco smoothed over her brown locks, but her hair still stuck up with frizzy knots. He pulled out from the curb and every now and again looked over at her to make sure she got herself in check.

She wasn't the kind of girl to cry at the drop of a hat and she at least succeeded in not actually crying in front of him. That thing she did to stop herself kind of freaked him out though and if he had to pick between her tearing up and that weird yowling, he would definitely go for the tears.

Still, Katsuki wondered if he was in over his head. He wasn't going to back down and kick her out. He was as stubborn as an ox and his word was golden. In fact, even if she wanted to leave, he wouldn't let her – not for a second.

The problem was he didn't know anything about girls except what to do to make them moan in the sheets. Everything else about them just filtered through his head like white noise.

"I feel so stupid getting anxious about something like that…" Ochaco said, laughing to herself a little as she broke the silence.

"Yeah, you're a dumbass." Katsuki pulled into the closest park he could find at five in the afternoon. "Trust me, if there was an issue with you staying then I probably wouldn't have offered in the first place."

"Well, I was more thinking that no other girl would put up with you…"

Glaring, he gave her hair one last tussle before hopping out of the car. It had been so long since he'd gone shopping that he wasn't actually sure what normal people needed, other than toilet paper, toothpaste and shaving cream.

Ochaco followed behind him, back to her usual annoyingly peppy self. Her hair was still an absolute wreck, making it seem like he'd fucked the daylights out of her. He thought he would get some kind of sick amusement from people seeing her like that beside him, but it was only a reminder that nothing was ever going to happen between them.

It didn't take a genius to realise that she still saw him as he was when he was a kid and there really wasn't much he could do to change that. It wasn't worth trying to change her perspective either, because what would that achieve in the first place?

Katsuki strode through the aisles with his elbows resting on the cart, listening to her jabber on while she stacked fruits and vegetables and other staple food in like it was her favourite past time.

He remembered when he was a kid and how his mother would pull him along while she shopped for dinner. The sterile floors and painfully bright lights, along with the yellow and red plastered everywhere for all the _great_ savings. He remembered why he loathed shopping so much. Then when he was about to crack, Ochaco would turn to look at him with that big dorky grin and chocolate eyes and his irritation would subside like it was never even there to begin with.

Their last stop was the snack isle because he felt like if he took her there first, they wouldn't buy any actual food. Ochaco suddenly stopped and he almost ran her down with the cart. "What's the big deal?"

"Kacchan?"

Katsuki recognised that whiny, pathetic voice and he seethed. As he looked past Ochaco, he saw Deku, a kid in each arm and at his side, the frog chick swaddling a baby. They looked so disgustingly happy that they could have made a dysfunctional family sitcom.

"Tsuyu!" Ochaco called, her face welling up with joy. "I haven't seen you since high school… what have you been up to?"

"Well…" Frog and Deku looked at each other knowingly, as if it were some inside joke.

Gross.

Pulling a child from Deku's arms, she hugged the kid up to her chest and squeezed him tightly. Rubbing her cheek against his smooth baby skin, she buzzed with delight. "Are these your kids? They are so adorable!"

Kids? More like tadpoles.

He strode closer so that he could make his presence known without actively participating in the pow-wow. Seeing Ochaco so happy was almost contagious. The kid smiled up at him with the kind of unreserved smile that was singular to childhood, where they had nothing to hide and genuinely felt happy to see you.

"Kid," He nodded in greeting.

"Kacchan." The kid parroted, reaching up at him with his little fists.

"You've gotten heavy." As he picked the kid up, he groaned and playfully almost dropped him. "Been putting on some muscle?"

"You bet!" The kid flexed his bicep playfully.

Katsuki put the boy down and let him run back to his dad. It had been ages since he'd seen them, not since the new addition to the family. He ran into Deku every now and again given his line of work, but because of how polarised their occupations were, seeing him left a bad taste in his mouth.

He didn't really pay much attention to their conversation, until he heard Ochaco blurt out, "Why don't you guys come over for dinner at our apartment?"

Katsuki had the feeling they wouldn't be watching Top Gun tonight.

…

 **Thank you so much for reading and please review and let me know your thoughts and don't be afraid to give me suggestions on how to improve – I really would appreciate your input.**

 **Lots of love!**


	3. Chapter 3 - Danger Zone: Part 2

**Chapter 3 – Danger Zone: Part 2**

 **Hi guys! I've decided to do updates twice a week – one on Wednesday and another on Sunday. I'll keep this up until the end of July and we can figure out what to do then!**

….

"Bakugo, help me…" Her voice was like gravel from all the bitching and freaking out she'd done since they got home. "I need you to zip me up."

Katsuki regarded her as she turned around, her head bowed forward while she parted her hair. He could see the entire length of her back, from her neck right down to the dimples above her ass. He could even see what bra she was wearing – white, lacy with a flimsy clasp.

He pinched the clasp and the bra sprang apart.

"I said zip me up, not undo my bra!" Ochaco's temper was reaching its breaking point. "Why do you have to be such a jerk all the time?"

He resented that she left herself so open to him when he wanted more than anything to rip that dress off and fuck all the stress right out of her system. She brought it on herself inviting Deku and Frog for dinner when they had no time to prepare.

"Relax."

Katsuki felt weird saying that.

She narrowed her eyes and glared at him. If looks could kill, he would be six feet under. Not that he particularly minded the idea of being killed by a beautiful woman in a black dress. She looked good, all dolled up and classy.

Deku and Frog were set to arrive at eight. Looking at his watch, they had over an hour to prepare dinner which was in his books, plenty of time. The fridge was stocked up with beer and if the supply ran out he still had hard liquor in the cupboard to get them through a tough night.

In fact, the easiest solution was just order pizza ten minutes beforehand. It would save her ruining that beautiful dress by getting food on herself while cooking. She acted like she was going to entertain royalty instead of it being what it was – good food, popping open some beers and just seeing where the night went.

"God, I wish I could be the one sitting around drinking beer while you run around doing all the work!" Ochaco laid into him, her hands on her hips.

"Look, you got yourself in this mess. I'm just going to sit back and watch." He leaned back, taking another long, lukewarm sip.

Ochaco sighed and bowed at his feet, her forehead touching his knees as she knelt before him like he was a god. "I was excited. It's the first time I've seen them in years and I just blurted it out."

"You're gonna owe me." He hid his smirk behind the mouth of the bottle as he appeared disinterested, trying to milk as much adoration as possible.

When she looked up at him, it was impossible to say no.

"Please help me make tonight work."

In one smooth motion, Katsuki pulled her up and sat her down onto the bar stool. He leaned over her, their noses almost touching. "You're going to sit there and drink. You don't get to move until I say so and if I hear one complaint, I'm going to spank your ass until you cry."

When she saluted him, she did it with the wrong hand. "Yes sir."

With that, he pushed his beer in front of her and set to work in the kitchen. Quickly thinking of all the food that he could make with the ingredients stocked up, he covered his hand over his mouth while he planned everything out.

Katsuki had never cooked for another person before, but there was a golden rule he followed all his life that he could apply to everything – do what you like and if other people don't like it, they can fuck off.

"You're really amazing, you know that?" Ochaco took an idle sip, smiling at him from across the counter. "In all the years that we went to school together, I never realised how absolutely reliable you are."

Pausing, Katsuki decided that if she relied on him, his golden rule wouldn't work anymore. Instead of dumping chilli on everything like he normally would, he decided to make things more Deku friendly. He could lay it on just the way he liked it after he was done.

"You don't need to sweeten me up, I'm already putting out." Katsuki grinned, loving the praise. "I'll get you another beer."

Ochaco smiled, resting her cheek against her palm as she watched him idly.

Cooking was just basically mastering the art of time management. You have a rough time frame of how long it takes for something to get done and the degree of attention you have to focus on it to make it right. Then, all it took was intuition and the ability to hit the ground running.

Taking all those things into consideration, Katsuki was in his element in the kitchen.

He fired up the stove and let the flame lick the edge of the pan. The gas stove was his pride and joy because he hated that electric shit. What was cooking without fire?

Prepping the vegetables and meat with precision, he moved his hand over the pan and felt the oil spit at him, the tiny droplets like pin pricks in his hand. The beef deserved first dip, but not before some light seasoning to really bring out the flavour. Then in came the vegetables and he waited, letting the flavours get to know each other before he kicked the party up a notch by tossing the pan up firmly. Stir-fry was the dream combination, being easy to make and delicious as sin to eat.

While all that was going down, he filled a pot with oil and let it heat up gradually and focused on prepping the chicken with potato starch. The trick with chicken wings is you fry them twice to get them extra crunchy. Weak-minded people tended to not push their luck, frying it just enough so that it was kind of crunchy but not enough to dry it out. They were assholes and deserved shitty soggy wings. If you fry them twice, the outside is hard enough to seal the juicy interior and nothing compares to the sound of a good crunch.

This was going to be his treat, so he whipped up a batch of spicy sauce because who doesn't love hot wings?

Knowing that chicks had a weird obsession with salad, he decided to be a gentleman and tossed together a salad with onion, tomato, carrot and as much green and leafy shit as he could get his hands on, drizzled lightly with balsamic vinegar.

"You can move now."

Ochaco hopped down from the stool and wrapped her arms around his back. She squeezed him tightly and while her face was pressed deeply against his shirt, he took the opportunity to smile. When she broke away, her face was serious. "Bakugo there is something I've been meaning to ask you."

As he pulled out another drink, he thought about how much he hated it when people lead up to serious questions. "Out with it then."

"You weren't surprised that Deku and Tsuyu were together and it looked like you knew their children…"

Deku and Tsuyu had been together for basically forever. He didn't know whether that would be a sore spot for Ochaco, but there was nothing she could do about it now that they were hitched.

"Yeah, I run into Deku a lot at work and urgh-" Katsuki hated awkward conversations like this, scratching his head while he tried to figure out how to put this. "They made me the godfather to their brats."

He was also the best man at their wedding.

"Oh." Ochaco seemed surprised, but she listened contemplatively.

"Deku is a criminal defence lawyer. I run into the fucker all the time." Katsuki wasn't going to avoid people who made him uncomfortable, he would just make them uncomfortable instead. "Cops and lawyers just don't mesh well, you get me?"

"You lock em up and he lets em free." Ochaco laughed, "That must be really frustrating for you."

"Every time I see his face I want to fucking kill him."

They heard the persistent buzz of the doorbell and he gripped her wrist quickly before she ran and got the door. There was a lot he wanted to explain to her about everything, but it was better to just wait for another time. Also, she still hadn't zipped up the back of her dress and he would rather fucking die than have Deku look at her naked back.

"Thanks!" She giggled sheepishly as he brought the zip up the length of her back. "I almost forgot about that."

"Are you ready?"

They both walked slowly to the door and Ochaco looked up at him expectantly and he nodded. It was the first time he had guests over in the entire five years he lived at his apartment and it had to be Deku and Frog.

Apparently, it was the night for first times because it was also the first time he saw Deku without a suit since they were in high school. Deku was a running joke at work because he looked like some kid wearing his daddy's suit. The first day they had all seen him, they'd laughed. The second time, not so much.

Deku was a damn good lawyer and looking like a brat played in his favour. With that dumbass, naïve smile and soft-spoken tone and idealistic nature, the jury was always like putty in his hands. He was extra polite with the judge and relaxed the person he defended. People always loved an underdog and there was no one more suited to his job than Deku.

"Hi honey," Tsuyu wrapped her arms around Ochaco's shoulders with her hand still stuck to Deku's. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

"I know!" Ochaco was a little teary eyed. "I didn't think I would ever see you guys again and now you're here and I'm so excited I want to cry."

They moved like an amorphous blob inside, neither one letting go of each other. Katsuki wanted to roll his eyes and call a taxi to the nearest bar. Thankfully they both brought wine because if he didn't get something out of the night, he would have turned the nosy fuckers away.

Everyone sat down and Katsuki made the executive decision to drink as much as possible to get through the night. He loaded his food with chilli and tried to focus on eating and keep his cool while they all smiled at each other stupidly, as though Ochaco was some long lost missing relative that they had found a decade later.

"Bakugo never told us that you two were living together." Tsuyu's voice was low and sly. "In fact, I didn't know you guys were even in contact."

"Well, you know how it is. We leave high school and we all grow up and suddenly people who weren't super close get on like a house on fire." Ochaco rambled nervously.

As Katsuki looked up from his food, his eyes met with the dynamic duo as they stared at him expectantly. Ochaco nudged him with her thigh underneath the table and he took that as more than enough queues necessary for him to speak up.

"Hmm?" Discretely, he pinched the skin underneath her knee. "Don't go running your mouth, Frog. It's not like that."

Ochaco stomped on his foot, the force of it crashing down on his toes like a meteorite.

"Then you two are just _really_ good friends who happen to be living together in a one bedroom apartment with women's and men's clothes thrown all over the bedroom?"

When did she have a chance to look into the bedroom?

"Tsuyu, I don't think we should pry into other people's business…" Deku could sense the incoming danger from a mile away.

"Yeah Deku, put a muzzle on your old lady!" Katsuki smirked, washing the distasteful conversation down with beer.

As they both stared at him in awkward silence, he felt the slight warmth of Ochaco's palm as it rested against his thigh. Her touch seemed to anchor him back to the moment and remember why he was here doing this with her in the first place.

"I was walking home late at night and some drunk man tried to assault me. Bakugo was on duty and just so happened to be nearby and… well, the rest is history." Ochaco said, her voice calm and serious.

That wasn't how he would tell it, but technically none of it was a lie.

"I'm going to go get another drink."

Ochaco dug her nails into his leg before he could get up. Katsuki grit his teeth and beared with it. For being so tiny, she had the strength of a panther.

"Do you two want anything?" He said, his words as robotic as a five-year-old reading a speech from hand cards.

"Sure, I'll have a beer." Tsuyu was mildly taken aback. "Thanks?"

"I'll go with you." Deku said, standing up.

The moment they were out of sight, he could hear the low murmur of the girls as they spoke privately. Tsuyu was probably checking if Ochaco was being held captive or something.

"Blink twice if you're in trouble."

Katsuki took his time, letting them get it out of their system while he slowly pulled out drinks from the fridge. It took him a second to realise that Deku was still there with him and he regarded him for a moment before realising that he was going to be served the same shit that Ochaco was probably getting from Tsuyu right now.

Either way, he took pleasure in torturing the dork. Instead of making the first move, he would let him squirm for a bit. Taking a long drink and scowling, he made himself as busy as possible while Deku fidgeted nervously.

It worked, Deku looked like he was almost bursting. "I think that this is great."

Katsuki almost spat out his beer. He expected some lecture about not taking advantage of Ochaco and treating her right and yadda, yadda, yadda – not whatever bullshit this was.

"You know, at first I was really worried but now I feel like I can rest assured…"

Never mind, it was going to be one of those talks. Deku was just using one of his lawyer tactics to soften the blow before going in for the jugular.

"Look, if I want pussy I don't have to shit where I eat to find it." Katsuki scowled. "I'm not going to hurt her."

"That's not what I'm talking about." Deku's face screwed up with emotion. "It's not Uraraka I'm worried about. It's _you_."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Katsuki shook his head and tried to walk away, but Deku grabbed his arm tightly.

"No. I've finally got you alone so we can talk and we're going to talk, okay?" His words were firm but his voice quivered. "Ever since we graduated, you haven't talked to anyone. Did you even think about how hurt Kirishima was when you just ghosted him? You two were inseparable."

Fuck this. He didn't need to be loaded with guilt when he had a good buzz going. It wasn't his fault that they dropped contact. He was busy. That was how life worked. You get a job and you drift away from all the people you called your friends. Kirishima understood, it just took him some time.

"Fuck off, Deku." Katsuki kept his voice low so that Ochaco wouldn't overhear them. "Unlike your clients, you don't need to talk for Kirishima. If he wants to fucking talk, he can call or whatever."

Deku's fingers tightened, digging further into his arm. "How long has it been since you spoke to your parents? They call me sometimes, asking if I'd seen you around and if you're okay… Tsuyu and I tried to touch base and you shut us out as well. What happens if you get shot or something and no one knows about it? Don't you ever think about how much that scares everyone?"

Not this bullshit again.

"I'm not going to fucking get shot." Katsuki pulled away with the drinks, leaving Deku to follow him back to the dining room. "You all talk like I'm in a war zone or something. Who the fuck has the guts to shoot a cop anyway?"

Deku said nothing as the low, gentle voices of the girls came into hearing.

Popping open the beer for Tsuyu, Katsuki left it by her side as she picked it up and waved it to him thankfully. He sat back down with Ochaco and felt the gentle rub of her hand caressing his thigh as a subtle sign of approval.

Her soft touch smoothed away all the tension built up from listening to Deku's stupid lecture and he relaxed. At the same time, he resented being treated like a dog and if she wanted to play that game with him, he'd do it to her too.

"Ochaco told me that you were the one who cooked dinner, Bakugo." Tsuyu looked at him, her face warm with the buzz of alcohol. Her and Deku probably didn't get out that often. They had the alcohol tolerance of a teenager. "I hate to say it, but this is really good."

"Oh yeah?" Katsuki fingered the end of Ochaco's dress as he slowly hiked it up her thigh. "Next time you're free, I'll cook you up some of my specialty steaks."

"We would love to…" Tsuyu sounded suspicious. "You are full of surprises tonight. I had no idea you could cook."

"If I'm going to do something, I might as well do a fucking good job of it." Katsuki drew slow circles up the inside of her thigh, reaching incrementally higher.

He could feel her quivering underneath his touch, his calloused fingers on her sensitive skin all the more heightening the sensations. Not wanting the observant Frog to catch on that he cared for her as much as he genuinely did, he glanced at Ochaco discretely from the corner of his eye and noticed how even the tips of her ears blushed red.

Ochaco had every opportunity to push him away, but she didn't. She could barely compose herself and there was no way Deku and Frog didn't notice when she was sitting across from them in plain view.

That's what she got for trying to manipulate him with positive reinforcement.

"I feel like we've talked so much about us!" Clearing her throat, Ochaco's laughter was breathless. "How did you two get together?"

Deku and Tsuyu smiled sheepishly and they both opened their mouths to speak at the same time. A fond smile stretched across Tsuyu's face as she sat back, "Izuku, you can tell the story this time."

"Tsuyu was working as a lifeguard at the beach and I would run past on my daily jog. I would always stop to talk to her and then one day she said to me-"

Tsuyu cut in, "I asked him, why do you always call me Asui when I told you to call me Tsu?"

"It was too familiar." Deku answered, their eyes warm as they smiled at each other.

"I told him to take me out so we could get more familiar with each other and then there wouldn't be a problem anymore." Tsuyu answered, holding his hand in hers. "We've been together for about six years, married for five."

They finished the wine bottle and the night almost felt as though time had stopped while they just… talked. It wasn't that what they spoke about was particularly interesting or insightful. He just didn't know how long it had been since he listened to people talking instead of focusing on work and trying to get ahead.

Even though he hated dealing with Tsuyu and Deku, for once it felt bearable. More than bearable – he didn't want the night to end. When it did, Katsuki stood by the door as they said goodbye.

Deku reached for his hand and Katsuki gripped it automatically. For once he didn't try to break Deku's fingers. "Kacchan I'm really glad that… I'm glad that we're still friends."

He wasn't quite sure what to say. They had known each other for most of their lives and not once did he ever think that Deku was his friend.

"Bring better wine next time." Katsuki grinned, bringing Deku forward and smacking his back.

Deku was as short as ever, only coming up to about his shoulder. When they broke away, Deku's nose ran and his face scrunched up with tears. Tsuyu comforted him while he tried to compose himself, but seeing a grown man cry was too much and Katsuki had to look away.

As they shut the door, he didn't know why he felt so guilty.

…

 **Thank you so much for reading!**

 **Please tell me what you think in a review. They motivate me so much and I feel so encouraged by your feedback.**

 **I would love to hear your predictions as well~**


	4. Chapter 4 - Danger Zone: Part 3

**Chapter 4 – Danger Zone Part 3**

 **This was rough guys. This is the last part of the 'Danger Zone Arc' and I hope you enjoy it!**

…

The kitchen was a wreck and Katsuki was out of beer. Usually that alone would make him rampage, but the only outlet he had was cleaning it up. Ochaco helped him and hummed songs to herself with a stupid grin stretched across her face. Watching her wipe down the plates with a hand towel, he felt weirdly at peace as though all was right with the world.

"I really loved tonight." She said, "I wish we could do this with everyone."

"Preferably somewhere some other poor fucker can clean up the mess." Katsuki grunted.

His mood was brought down by the whiplash of emotions he felt stirring in his gut. It wouldn't be a bad idea to bring everyone together and throw a belated reunion. Maybe it was the kind of push Ochaco needed to get off the streets and clean up the mess that was her shitty life.

"Look at me getting all sentimental," She laughed, rubbing her eyes a bit. "The night is young and we can still fit in that movie if you want."

"Yeah, but we're doing it my way." Katsuki said, pulling out the hard spirits. "You up for the challenge?"

"I never back down from a challenge." Her face was as sober as any five-foot girl could muster after having three beers and two glasses of wine. "Bring it."

They sat down between two big bottles of cola and a bottle of expensive whiskey. Generally, the only thing Katsuki mixed with whiskey was a little bit of water, especially given the quality of the liquor he gravitated towards, but it was an acquired taste and as much as he respected Ochaco's prowess, she was probably better off mixing with cola.

"Here are the rules: Every time there is a sexual innuendo, drink. Every time they refer to a person by their call sign, drink. You see a barrel roll, you drink." Katsuki looked at her for conformation. "Also, there is a part where we finish our drink, but I'm not going to tell you when because spoilers piss me off."

To make things a little easier, he poured her glass because he didn't want her to overcompensate when this was an endurance race. Passing her the drink, he wondered if she was picking a fight with him when she started taking generous sips. Either she had the strongest alcohol tolerance in the world or she was excellent at passing as sober.

An hour through the movie, Katsuki got his answer. Ochaco was absolutely plastered, yelling at the TV like a Canadian watching hockey. She was so in tune with the movie that she forgot he was even there. At that point, he started only pretending he was pouring whiskey in her cup and pouring plain old cola.

Eventually, she just rested her head on his lap and watched in silence. The warmth of her cheek on his thigh radiated through the fabric in his jeans and made his heart tighten in his chest. She was genuinely enjoying his favourite movie and his feelings started to run in a tangent that was entirely uncomfortable for him to entertain.

It was weird feeling so introspective and his mind wandered to things he hadn't ever really given himself much time to think about. Mostly it was Deku's fault for making him feel guilty for shit he didn't know was an issue in the first place. The bromance in the movie didn't help either - it made him think back and get caught up in nostalgia.

As much as he felt like a pussy admitting it, Kirishima was his best friend. Not only was he his best friend, but he was his rock. If he found himself in a bind, the first person he would turn to was Kirishima. He always had his back, no matter what. Katsuki hated to say it but Kirishima was the only person in the world who put up with his explosive temper and never once got intimidated.

"Ah, man…" Katsuki rubbed his forehead roughly.

Maybe he was getting old, but in lieu of getting wasted, he just got really depressed and contemplative every time he drank too much. That, or maybe he was becoming a high-functioning alcoholic. When was the last time he spent a night completely sober?

Katsuki didn't want to think about it. The credits rolled and he tussled Ochaco's hair, but she didn't stir.

"Oi, round face." Katsuki waited, but she didn't respond. "…Uraraka?"

Starting to panic, he shook her shoulders roughly, trying to wake her up.

"Ochaco?!"

Ochaco mumbled incoherently and turned over to look up at him. Inwardly, Katsuki relaxed. He had never taken care of someone who had too much to drink before because nobody ever expected him to. It was great that he wouldn't have to start now. She seemed fine.

"Kacchan your hands feel so nice and cool." She held up his palm to her face as she rubbed her cheek against his calloused skin. "It feels so nice…"

Without realising it, he smiled.

"You are so fucking drunk right now." Katsuki said.

Her skin felt so soft and smooth and he could smell the strawberry shampoo they had bought. For a moment, he let his guard down and took the opportunity to pet her head and smooth her hair, the fluffy brown strands silky and wispy as it fell through his fingers.

" _You're_ the one that's drunk." Ochaco pouted, her cheeks red. "I'm not drunk, I'm just taking advantage of you while you're drunk."

Katsuki didn't know why he cared about her so much. Maybe it was because he saw how much potential she had, and seeing her fight off some inebriated old dude in a dark street corner made him frustrated about how wasted it was. He just wanted her to be better – that was all.

"Do you remember that stupid sheet we had to do on what we wanted to be when we left school?" Katsuki's voice was low as he thought back to brighter times.

"Yeah, of course I do." Ochaco said, a soft sigh parting her lips.

Katsuki watched her move as she sat up languidly, their eyes locked the entire time. Cautiously, he watched as she swung her legs on either side of him and sat down on his lap, their faces inches apart. The air felt charged and in the dim light, he could see her eyelashes flicker as her brown eyes searched his face.

The hair on Katsuki's arms stood on end when her fingertips traced the sideburns hidden underneath his thick, blond hair. Usually he wouldn't be caught dead having a woman touch him like this, but he was going to make an exception – just this once.

"So, don't leave me hangin'," He pushed her playfully. "What sappy shit did you write?"

"Well," She laughed lightly, "I wanted to help businesses succeed by teaching owners how to run them properly."

"A consultant." He said, the cogs turning slowly in his brain.

That was a pretty sensible decision and even he couldn't think of anything she was more well-suited for. Ochaco had a lifetime of experience with her family's business, she was positive and good at problem solving and with the people skills she possessed and her knack for coaching and motivating, she could teach kids string theory if she wanted.

"You'd be a natural."

Katsuki was distracted as Ochaco smiled, bobbing her head forward while her fingers dug into his shoulders for balance. Their faces were so close he could almost taste her lips. The warmth of her breath heated his skin and he wanted her more than anything, but something held him back.

Before their lips could meet, he pressed his fingers over her mouth.

"Not like this…" Katsuki whispered, more to himself than her.

Ochaco's face crumpled, turning from soft pink to a greenish pale. He heard the rumble in her throat and sprang to action. It wasn't hard to scoop her up because she weighed about the same as a tiny bird. The real challenge was running quickly to the bathroom without falling down on his drunk ass and snapping her neck in the process.

Dodging through the hallways, Katsuki sprinted to the bathroom with as much agility as he could muster without throwing her through the drywall. "Fuck yeah, made it in record time!"

"Ba…ku…"

Ochaco retched, covering the tiles and his clothes with a sea of vomit. It vaguely reminded him of a nature documentary he had seen, about how sharks regurgitate their stomach to deter predators. Privately he wondered if he would find an old rusted bicycle somewhere in the mix with all the shit she heaved up, but at the same time he knew that if he looked down, he was done for.

Katsuki's disgust tolerance had strengthened after being a cop. He had seen people shot, seen the angry inflamed marks of an abscess on a junkie's arm. He had broken into apartments where the elderly lay dead, long forgotten by their relatives for seemingly months. He was always fine with blood because he had been left bleeding plenty of times in his life.

The one thing he could not stand was vomit.

Still, he had to take at least some responsibility here. Carrying her like she was a football must have played some part. It was like how you don't shake a can of soft drink because it will explode everywhere when you open it.

Which is exactly what she did.

He lowered her robotically onto the floor and she was a good sport, crawling over weakly to the toilet while repeatedly groaning, "You did this."

Not wanting to get vomit all over the carpet, he fished out his phone and stripped down to his briefs, hopping into the shower to rinse off her stomach acid. Apparently, she held back before because she went right back to spewing an ungodly amount of vomit into his toilet bowl.

There were no clean towels anymore so he stepped out gingerly and grabbed his phone, therapeutically losing his shit with a plethora of profanities while he looked up how to take care of drunk people. Thanks to the hefty benefits of technology, he soon became an expert.

Running to the fridge, he pulled out a bottle of water and was at her side in a heartbeat. When he opened the bottle for her, she pushed him away like he was handing her anthrax.

"No…." Ochaco squealed, her words slurred. "I don't wanna spew anymore!"

If he had to pick between babysitting Deku and Frog's three brats or taking care of a belligerent drunk person, he would pick those damn kids every single time.

"That's the point, fuck-face!"

"I'm not a fuck-face, you're the one that's a fuck-face…" Ochaco mumbled drunkenly, her voice echoing softly through the bowl.

Katsuki was mildly taken aback and resisted the urge to get into a screaming match. He wasn't even really that mad, in fact he was somewhere between impressed and shocked. Calming down, he tried to speak to her reasonably. "Look, if you drink some water I'll do anything you want."

"Will you kiss me?"

"Fuck." Katsuki cringed. "I'll do _almost_ anything you want."

"Then can you rub my back and say nice things to me?" Ochaco sounded miserable as she sipped the bottle.

Truthfully, Katsuki didn't really know if he could even do that, but he tried. Rubbing her back in slow circular motions, he thought of all the things he could say. She was beautiful, had a lot of spunk and she never stopped being on his mind ever since he first saw her talking to Deku. Really, it wasn't hard to think about all her good qualities – it was just saying them that was the hard part. Somehow, he just choked up and his mind went blank.

"You…aren't fat." Katsuki gauged her reaction and sighed with frustration. "You kind of look like a dog, but in a good way?"

"Do you hate me or something?" Ochaco's eyes were downcast, drops of tears stuck to her eyelashes as she blinked.

"No, I don't fucking hate you." Katsuki pinched the bridge of his nose and swore. "It's the opposite."

Katsuki's heart beat so loudly in his chest that he was almost shaking. He was usually good with women because when they started having feelings, he ditched them and moved on without a second thought. He did that so he wouldn't have to be a bundle of nerves, shaking and making a fool out of himself while trying to bare his heart and run the risk of being rejected.

"What does that even mean?" Ochaco asked, wiping her tears with her arm. "Do you even know how much I lo-"

Before she could finish talking, Katsuki covered her mouth with his palm and kissed the back of his hand where her lips would be. He felt the warmth of her tears as they cascaded down her face and hit his skin and watched as her cheeks glowed red with pleasure.

When he pulled away, Ochaco was silent.

Katsuki didn't want to have another night like this where emotions ran high and he made dumb decisions and pressured people into doing the same. He didn't want to load his half-baked feelings on her or take advantage of her while she probably had some twisted sense of obligation towards him.

Tomorrow, he was pouring all his alcohol down the drain. He was going to quit drinking for good.

….

 **Thanks for reading guys, please drop a review and tell me what you think or even just say hi! :D**

 **I've got a couple of questions that I want to throw your way – did you guys like the size of this arc or should I make them longer than three chapters?**

 **I was also wondering, would you be interested in seeing my little drawings/doodles or should I just keep posting as is?**

 **If you have any suggestions then please feel free to tell me in a review or even an ask on tumblr, whatever you most feel comfortable with :D**

 **I really appreciate your support everyone!**


	5. Chapter 5 - Safe Bet

**Hey everyone!**

 **Sorry about how long it took – I had a couple of things interfering with my schedule mainly a big life event and I also got a cold a few days ago, and I couldn't for the life of me edit things properly because of how sick I was. My bad! I hope you like the chapter anyways!**

…

Ochaco swept her arm over her face as she moaned. Her breasts heaved as she let out shaky pants, the sight almost hypnotising as her chest rose and fell rhythmically. The view was fantastic, other than her arm obstructing her lustful expression as she peered down at him. It was like it was a piece of her that she wanted to keep private from him, even when he was right there between her thighs with her most secret places in plain view.

Katsuki hated that.

Ochaco needed to realise that right now they were playing by his rules. Katsuki nuzzled her thigh with his cheek as his five o'clock shadow rubbed against her skin like sandpaper. Like clockwork, her legs parted further and he smirked.

It was the oldest trick in the book.

"That's not fair…" She looked down at him, her eyes clouded with lust as she bit her lip.

He kissed up her inner thigh teasingly, a silent apology for using a tactical advantage against her. He was Hannibal crossing the Alps to invade Italy – he could not afford failure and he had to use all the arsenal he could manage to even get there. Victories were either up to his standards or they were no better than failures. He was a perfectionist after all.

"That doesn't mean you get to stop." Ochaco whispered, grabbing a fistful of his hair. "Finish what you started."

Katsuki obliged.

He ripped apart her panties like they were-

"Bakugo!"

"Hah?!" Katsuki awoke with a start, his cheek damp from the drool pooled on his pillow. "What?"

Looking down, Ochaco was lying next to him, her cheek resting against his arm and her back pressed into his chest. Her ears were so red they were almost purple and slowly his mind caught up on what happened last night. He didn't want Ochaco to choke on her own vomit while she was asleep so he held her all night to make sure she didn't roll over onto her back.

"Bakugo, your thingy is well…uhm," Ochaco mumbled. "It's stabbing me."

Katsuki shot out of bed so fast that he felt like the Flash. If everyone could willingly muster the speed and agility awakened from the desire to escape an embarrassing situation, no one would die in a fire ever again. His heart was full of adrenaline and he slammed the bedroom door so hard it nearly fell off the hinges.

Waking up with morning glory was just part of being a man. Usually he would have a cold shower and maybe run fifteen kilometres to tire himself out if his body was feeling particularly stubborn, but it hadn't been _that_ persistent since he was chasing girls in his early twenties.

All of the things that would have remedied the situation were in that bedroom. His shower, his running sweats and the best solution to date – a girl in his bed. None of which he could touch at that very second. He felt like he would spontaneously combust if he walked in there and saw her stretched out, looking at him with that stupid smile that always stretched across her face whenever she caught him staring at her.

At the thought of her, Katsuki's body moved on its own and he found himself with his fist gripping the door handle. A reckless part of him thought, why not? Why not go in there and drive her crazy and maybe spend the rest of his life fucking ruining that delicious body? Maybe they could even have something special, like Deku and Frog.

The more rational part of him thought, why drag Ochaco into that situation when she clearly came onto him because she was afraid that he would kick her out on her ass if she didn't put out? She probably thought so badly of him that she would need to do him _favours_ , just so she could crash here. The thought made him sick and suddenly he hated the bitch.

No – if he wanted her so badly, he would do things right for once.

Katsuki let go of the doorhandle and did the only thing he could manage to calm his nerves. He kicked the door as hard as he could to fuck with her while she had a hangover and went to make bacon.

The first course of action while bacon was frying was to pour every ounce of alcohol down the drain. That included the expensive bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label that he had saved for when he would climb the bureaucratic ladder of the police force and get promoted into something more prestigious. He didn't hesitate when the drain consumed every last drop but he kept the bottle so that he could fill it with something cheap and probably give to Deku as a belated wedding present.

Ochaco cleared her throat and he calmly turned around to face her.

"I just wanted to say-"

"Do not fucking say a word!" Katsuki yelled, _calmly_. "If you mention any of that to anyone, I will find you and I will kill you."

"Let me finish." Ochaco smiled, her face as flustered as he felt. "Thank you for taking care of me last night. I know this is going to come out totally wrong, but I think we should sleep together."

"Are you shitting me?" Katsuki's mouth dropped.

"I mean platonically." She blushed, scratching her cheek as she looked away. "There is only the couch and everything would be so much more comfortable if we slept in the same bed – platonically."

Katsuki didn't realise he was holding his breath. He sighed with frustration and scratched his mop of blond hair. "I'm not saying anything. I'm just going to wait until you're not hungover when your brain is working properly and you realise how fucking stupid that idea is."

"I'm serious, it made me really happy to just feel you next to me. I felt like it was the only thing I've ever been one hundred percent certain about in my entire life!" Ochaco looked serious and heartfelt, her lips pursed as she tried to contain her emotional outburst. "Didn't you feel the same way too?"

Ochaco had a way with words that made anyone she spoke to feel like they were priceless and special and dear to her heart. In high school, she got to Deku enough that years of Katsuki's torture as he conflagrated Deku's self-esteem over and over again were not only restored, but were built up stronger than ever. She made everyone around her feel good because she knew exactly what to say in every situation.

Now here she was, getting to him. She made all the things that he held up and strove to achieve look like dirt and she filled him with weird feelings of wanting her not just physically, but in the dorky way that Deku and other pathetic losers pine after women like they shit gold or something.

"Shuddap and eat your bacon." Katsuki loaded her plate with bacon and eggs and let the greasiness pool at the bottom. The saltiness would probably make her more inclined to drink water and that would help immensely with her hangover. Not that he gave a shit about her wellbeing.

She looked like hell and her hair stood on end like it was some living creature trying to break free from her scalp. Every now and again she rested her palm against her temple as though she could massage a headache like a knot in a muscle.

Katsuki could attest that the best hangover cure was the hair of the dog that bit you. Nothing cured a hangover better than more booze to take the edge off. Not that he could give her that remedy when his 'medicine' was down the sink for good.

"So how does someone who is such a good cook live off takeaway and fast food with only beer in his fridge?" Ochaco asked, a piece of bacon wedged between her thumb and finger.

Katsuki raised his brow as she eyed him cynically, the dark circles under her eyes reminding him of a panda, complimenting her thick, spot-like eyebrows. The barb was a pathetic insult at best but Katsuki wasn't the kind of guy to back down from banter. He never took shit from anyone and that wasn't about to change.

Slowly, he breathed in and filled his lungs to their full capacity.

"NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!" He shouted as loudly as humanly possible.

Ochaco covered her ears as the sound reverberated through her skull, accentuated by the painful hangover. She didn't have any fight left in her anymore and Katsuki stole bacon from her plate, a big grin stretched across his face.

He was so used to drinking that the amount they had last night didn't even phase him. It would be a different story now that he officially got bored of the hobby – Katsuki would never say that he _quit_ , because that was assuming he had an addiction and regardless, he wasn't a quitter. Naturally he would be looking for another vice to fill the void.

"God, I'm sorry about the mess I made last night but you don't need to punish me for it." Ochaco groaned as she popped some aspirin. "I'll clean up so don't freak out about it."

"Already did while you were sleeping." Katsuki said, dipping his bacon in the leftover chilli sauce he made last night. "It's so fucking clean in there that you could probably eat off that floor."

Ochaco's lips parted with surprise and she giggled. For a moment, he forgot where he was as he watched her mouth move and listened to the sound of her laughter. She spoke to him, but he was so entranced by her that he almost felt like she was an addiction.

"The fuck did you say?" He shook off the weirdness of his feelings and turned away.

"I _said_ ," Ochaco began, leaning forward so that her breasts rested against the counter, "You need me."

"You are so full of shit, I don't need anybody." Katsuki almost laughed. "I've never needed anybody so why would I start needing your dumb ass now?"

"If I wasn't here, you wouldn't take care of yourself or talk to anyone, would you?" She stood and trapped him in the kitchen as they squared off with each other. "I know you will never admit it but you should at least acknowledge I'm right. I make you a better person."

These last few days he had been out of his comfort zone and he did feel a lot more liberated from the minutia of his mundane life. He _enjoyed_ Deku and Frog's company last night and he was even thinking of calling up Kirishima and talking again. Maybe Ochaco was right.

"We're meant for each other and I know you don't believe me, but I think us meeting each other was fate." Ochaco stood tall, her hands tightened into fists as she smiled up at him, determined to win him over.

Something about her confidence pissed him off and the thought of him coming to these conclusions because of her in lieu of his own free will pissed Katsuki off even more. He wouldn't let her get off that easy.

"Let me repeat myself: you are so full of shit." Katsuki didn't know which pickup artist fed her those lines, but he wasn't a sweet words kind of guy, he liked to be wined and dined first. "You're the one who needs me, baby."

Ochaco's face flared and she looked away as all her confidence from earlier vanished. As much as she tried to hide it, she was visibly shaking with anxiety from all the things she said earlier, which were teenager asking their long-term crush to prom at best and obsessive fan writing a love letter to their movie star crush in blood at worst.

Katsuki didn't want this to drag out any longer than it needed to, so he had to be straight to the point.

"Let me tell you something," He was going to give it to her real nice and slow so she understood. "You don't need to throw yourself on me so that I'll take care of you. I'm your fucking friend, not your sugar daddy."

"Why can't you just listen to me and understand…" Ochaco's eyes welled up with tears and she choked up. "I keep spelling it out to you, but you don't listen."

"You're the one not fucking listening!" Katsuki roared, all the anger from earlier burning brighter after holding it in for so long. "You don't need to whore yourself out and fuck me for favours, it's so fucking gross and annoying!"

This was not how he wanted things to go, but it was for the best. His mother taught him that you can't peel a band aid off slowly, you've got to rip it off as fast as possible and it hurts for a second but it's better than the gradual pain of doing it slow.

Sure, it would be sweet to hook up because he imagined they would have amazing chemistry. What Katsuki didn't want was the weirdness of mixing friendship with sex. That combination was like mixing bleach with ammonia – something he never ever wanted to fuck with.

"Bakugo, stop pushing me away…"

Ochaco crashed into his chest, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist. He was still in his briefs and they were skin to skin as his heart tore into pieces at the sound of her sobs. Ochaco was just good at getting to him because she probably figured out he was weak when someone started crying.

Katsuki couldn't allow himself to hold her, because if he did, all his self-control would melt and he would take her to bed and never let her leave his side ever again. He would even say sorry, which was something he never liked doing. Maybe he would even ask her if she wanted to be his girlfriend and meet his parents. Then he would definitely burn her with his shitty hang-ups and selfish personality when she needed a guy like Deku – a safe bet.

When she held him, her touch lingered up his spine and Katsuki resisted the urge to lean down and bite her shoulder. He wanted more than anything to pick her up and lean her against the counter but instead he did the opposite – Katsuki pushed her away and left her there in the kitchen.

Katsuki got ready and went through his morning routine like he was an auto-pilot and when he left, she was still standing there staring at him with tears falling down her face. She was heartbroken and frankly, so was he.

He didn't know how long he sat in his car staring at the steering wheel but eventually he managed to shake himself out of it and call Deku.

"Oi Deku, you busy?"

"This is Tsuyu – Izuku is busy right now." Her voice reminded him of an automated message. "What's up, Bakugo?"

"Look Frog, I need you and Deku here ASAP alright?" Katsuki felt uncomfortable involving other people with his problems because it made him feel as though he didn't have his shit together. "Just pick her up and I'll come around eventually."

"Why can't you bring Ochaco out, you have our address." Tsuyu paused, the sound of the microwave pinging in the background. "Oh - Unless you're running away from someone?"

"Go eat shit and die Frog, you fucking bitch." Katsuki grumbled, but his heart wasn't really in it. Sighing, he tried to smooth things over because desperate times called for desperate measures, "I'm urgh – _sorry_ – I didn't mean it. Help me out just this once."

"You need to clean out your mouth, mister."

"Hah?"

"Not you." Tsuyu sighed. "The baby sitter let them stay up and watch T.V past nine and they must have watched something with bad language."

"Put the little squirt on the phone I'll have a talk with him. I'll do you this one favour so just get Deku." Katsuki wedged the phone between his ear and shoulder while he waited.

"Hello?"

Katsuki could hear the tell-tale rustling as the kid fidgeted with the phone. He hated phones as a kid too.

"Hey kid, is your mother out of earshot?"

"Yes, sir."

"I'm going to make a deal with you – man to man." Katsuki smirked. "You're gunna be _really_ good to your folks, no swearing or any of that shit and you're going to be an upstanding citizen."

"An upstanding citizen?" The boy parroted him quizzically.

"Yeah, an upstanding citizen." Katsuki knew the kid looked up to him and he had him eating from the palm of his hand. "Then when you're in high school, I'm going to teach you some really fucked up swear words. However, if I hear you're being a shithead from your folks the deal is off. Have I got your word?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Remember kid: a man is only as good as his word. I won't forget so make sure you don't either." Katsuki was serious. "Now when your mum comes in, give her a kiss and tell her that you're sorry that you said those words and if your brother and sister start saying them, tell em to knock it off, okay?"

Katsuki could hear the boy's enthusiastic agreement on the other end as he tried to contain his excitement. He could hear the static rustling as the phone was passed around clumsily like it was a greased-up watermelon. It really was impossible to keep a kid on the phone for more than a minute but then again as an adult, he still felt uncomfortable talking on the phone. There was always this expectation to listen carefully and respond in turn, even when you had nothing to say.

"Kacchan?" Deku's voice was hesitant. "We haven't spoken in years and now we have a two-day streak of talking."

"Save all that sappy shit for your diary, you pussy." Katsuki grumbled. "Get in the car with your missus and pick Ochaco up. Actually, you just stand outside and get Frog to go in there."

"What did you-"

"I swear to fucking god dude if you're not in the fucking car before I hang up this phone I'm going to murder you and make it look like an accident!" Katsuki said, the urge to smash his fist through the windscreen rising every second.

"Oka-"

Before Deku pissed him off more, Katsuki hung up the phone. Sighing, he scrolled through his tiny list of contacts. He had one more call to make and he had to make it count.

….

 **Thanks for reading everyone, I can't wait to hear from you!**

 **Also, I keep forgetting to mention but to all the anonymous/guest reviewers I just want to say thank you so much. I read all of them and can't respond so I just wanted to say that I love hearing from you and it is much appreciated!**

 **If there is anything I can do to make up for the delay in the schedule, I'm open to suggestions :D**


	6. Chapter 6 - Partners

**Chapter 6 – Partners**

 **Hey everyone, I hope you like this chapter!**

 **Thank you for all the kind support I just want to say I love hearing from you so much and it motivates me a lot (it would probably take me a whole year to get to six chapters but your kind words made me so pumped!).**

….

"So, let me get this straight," Kirishima leaned forward, his knuckles flexing as he narrowed his gaze. "You don't talk to me for years and you call me up out of the blue… just to talk about a girl."

They squared off, the tension in the room electric as Katsuki prepared for the worst. "Do you want to take this outside?"

The alleyway was as dark as when he met Ochaco and he wondered why every life changing event happened somewhere dark, dank and sleazy. He let Kirishima get in the first hit and the blow floored him like a wrecking ball.

Katsuki gasped for air as he keeled over, trying his hardest to keep standing before he looked up at Kirishima's hurt face. They had ended on a bad note last time they saw each other, and the wound didn't heal over the years but instead festered into something ugly. None of that mattered, as he clenched his fist as tight as he could, rolled back his arm and socked Kirishima in the jaw.

They had a lot to talk about, but not before he gave him hell.

In the end, they were both black and bloodied as they stretched out next to each other, their breathing heavy while they stared up past the tall brick buildings and into the blackened sky. Katsuki felt a combination of sentimentality and déjà vu, lying next to Kirishima like that. Nearly a decade ago they would talk about their dreams, stretched out on the grass as they stared at the starry sky. Now the memory was ruined by the dim flicker of a grimy streetlamp and a bloody nose.

"We were going to be partners, man." Katsuki wiped his nose as he snarled in anger, the sound reverberating off the brick surrounding them. "Fuck…"

It had been years and he was already bringing up old shit from the past. This wasn't like him to think backwards rather than forwards. What was the point when you can't change anything, let alone change people?

"I didn't want to be a cop, dude." Kirishima choked, his arm slung over his eyes as he looked away. "I still would have had your back, but I wanted to do something to help people and I felt like I couldn't just follow you around all my life. I wanted to make something of myself and make a difference my own way."

The one thing that connected them all – Deku, Frog, Kirishima and even Ochaco was the tutelage of All Might. He taught them to make a meaningful difference in the world and help people. He taught them all about moral fibre and protecting the weak and being the best and strongest you could possibly be. Deku defended people, Frog saved people from drowning and Katsuki protected civilians and punished people that broke the law. Even Ochaco was a good person who put herself second to everyone else – Kirishima fell short of all that.

"You're a fucking personal trainer! How is that making something of yourself, you shithead?" Katsuki didn't know why it mattered or why he cared that much, but he did.

"Obesity is one of the main problems for people in this day and age and I'm not just a trainer, I'm a director of one of the biggest non-profits in our country with a wall in my office full of other qualifications related to my field which you would know, if you asked." Kirishima bit back, although he was a lot softer than before.

"Save it." Katsuki sighed. "I get it, you're the Mother-fucking Teresa of helping people with body image and health and all that shit. Just tell me why being a cop was such a shit choice for you that you backed out without even telling me, you fucking pussy."

Kirishima was silent for a while, but Katsuki was almost shaking in anger, waiting a century for Kirishima to come up with at least one reason.

"I thought about it a lot and I felt weird about arresting people, like how is that helping anyone?" Kirishima pondered, as he smiled showing all his teeth. "Then I was helping a guy lift in the gym and he was a big fella just trying his best to get in shape. Just spotting for him and helping him reach his goals made me feel so good, you know what I mean?"

Kirishima was that kind of guy.

He was so trustworthy and motivated everyone just by sticking around and he had an attitude that made you feel as though you could rely on him no matter what. Not only that, he was never judgemental and just seemed to see the side of everyone that wanted to do good. That was why they were best friends, because Kirishima always understood him despite his explosive temper.

"Yeah, I get it now." Katsuki grumbled, getting up off the concrete.

He offered his hand and Kirishima took it with a grin as he pulled him up from the ground. They were too old to be brawling in the streets and there was no point holding grudges when none of it mattered anymore. They were both where they wanted to be in life and even if they didn't see eye to eye, they still needed to respect each other.

"I'm sorry for just bailing on you like that, I was just so afraid of what you were going to say when I told you." Kirishima looked him straight in the eye, his hardened appearance so unlike the softy he was inside. "I've missed you, man."

The feeling was mutual, but Katsuki would never admit it.

"Fuck off, it's not that big a deal." He grinned, clapping Kirishima on the back firmly.

Kirishima took advantage of the closeness, wrapping his arms tightly around Katsuki's shoulders as he hugged him. The feeling took him by surprise and he stood in shock, before clearing his throat and trying to untangle himself. Kirishima wouldn't budge.

"That's enough, dude!" Katsuki pushed him away, but he still laughed regardless. "You know the rules, dinner and a movie first."

They laughed and it felt like old times again. Katsuki felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, as though he forgot what it was like to not be alone in this world. More than anything, he felt relieved. He felt so relieved he wanted to go pick Ochaco up, throw her over his shoulder caveman style and see where the rest of their lives took them.

"Who's the girl you wanted to talk to me about, anyway?"

"Fucking Ochaco." Katsuki was already walking away, checking the time on his phone as he jogged over to his car.

"What?!" Kirishima called after him. "Uraraka from school?"

Rolling the window down, he called out into the street as he drove out from the parking lot. "I'll fill you in after!"

Katsuki drove, tapping his finger against the wheel angrily every time he ran into a red light. Deku and Frog lived out in the suburbs and it took ages to finally turn off the highway. He probably shouldn't have, but he sped through the beautiful residential housing on nearly two wheels as he raced to finally see her. It took him a while to even find the house because they all gave off that cheesy vibe of a beautiful family home with a white picket fence and blue door and he hated that shit.

When Katsuki found the house, he practically sprinted to the door but the thought of what to say crippled him and he sat on the steps while he tried to conjure up some kind of speech. He knew that girls loved an entrance and they liked some cool one liner that had them in tears every time they watched a sappy romantic movie. The problem was he just wasn't that kind of guy.

What he was going to do was tell her the truth and try his hardest not to call her a bitch or say fuck while he did it. Katsuki owed her at least that.

The door swung wide with a creak and he could hear the soft sound of domestic life humming in the background. The kids were playing with Deku in the lounge room, a stray toy car lying on its side, neglected in the hallway. In the kitchen Ochaco and Frog spoke in low murmurs and her voice lured him closer with its vibrant musicality.

He swore she said his name.

Katsuki tapped his fist against the door frame twice and walked in as the girls abruptly stopped talking. Ochaco was holding a cucumber in one hand and an eggplant in the other with a big blush stretched across her face as she froze.

He remembered the incident that morning when he woke up full-mast, as well as his promise to kill her if she mentioned anything to anyone. This was either a coincidence and they were about to cook something with both cucumber and eggplant, or maybe even the banana in Frog's hand but Katsuki couldn't think of any recipes that required only those three things off the top of his head. She just couldn't keep her fucking mouth shut to Frog.

"What the fuck are you doing, you bitch?!"

"Bakugo, what happened to you?" Ochaco stood up, ignoring his outburst.

Katsuki touched his nose and there was blood on his fingertips. Not only that, his knuckles were red and grazed from punching Kirishima because the guy was built like a brick shit-house. For some reason, the adrenaline he had while driving to see her had numbed him to the pain of getting his ass beat.

Frog brought out the first aid box and left them alone to talk. The moment he sat down, Ochaco was pawing over him, trying to clean up his bloodied face. Aside from the burning of the disinfectant, Katsuki felt shame creep up his skin as he thought about how he treated her that morning.

"How many people were you fighting?" Ochaco asked softly, wiping away the blood from his nose. "I'm guessing you were jumped by a gang of people to get hurt this bad…"

"Nope," Katsuki wanted to go along with that line of reasoning to save face, but he wasn't a liar. "Just one guy. But he probably looks worse than I do right now."

"Really?" She laughed, her eyes lighting up as she stared down at him intently. "Tell me who it was so I can go fix them up too."

"It was Kirishima."

"Thank god." Ochaco pressed her palm to her chest with a sigh of relief. "I thought you wanted to bring a girl home or something and wanted me out of the house and then maybe her boyfriend got a bunch of friends together and beat you up for taking his girl. Unless you brought Kirishima home?"

Ochaco had a remarkable imagination.

"No!" Katsuki huffed as she sniggered. "No. Just no. We met up and got into a fight, but we're good now."

"You're so boneheaded that you probably started it." Ochaco chastised, as she carefully taped a gauze to his cheek.

Katsuki smirked, thinking about how she hit the nail on the head. It was weird thinking about it, but he really fucking liked Ochaco. To say it was an attraction was putting it too simply, he never really liked girls for their personalities and thought they were all kind of sensitive and bitchy. Ochaco was different and he really couldn't place why she was so special to him.

Personally, he expected her to be cold or resentful after the ordeal he put her through that morning. Girls he dated in the past never seemed to let shit go, but Ochaco was joking around again and it was like it never even happened.

"So, should I ask about the eggplant?" Katsuki said, gripping the neck of the vegetable firmly.

"You'll get mad at me." Ochaco's ears turned pink and she puffed. Her eyes locked onto the eggplant as he waved it in front of her face. "Tsuyu pressured me into talking."

"Don't blame Frog when she's not in the room to defend herself." He grumbled, bonking her on the head playfully. "You're the shithead pervert speculating the size of my dick, she was probably just talking about Deku's tiny pecker and going along with you to be polite."

"I'm sorry!" Ochaco squealed, rubbing the top of her head. "I just couldn't stop thinking about it, okay."

All this time Katsuki thought she would be hung up on the shitty things he said to her but instead she was just excited to talk to another woman about the weird aspects of intimacy you come to figure out by being in close quarters with the opposite sex. It was weird thinking that she was almost a hooker before they met when she knew next to nothing about men.

"I'm going to go find-"

Katsuki grabbed her wrist before she could leave, pulling her onto his lap.

"Don't go."

Ochaco gripped his shoulders as he pulled her close to his chest and for a moment they just stared into each other's eyes, flustered and not sure what to do next. Katsuki didn't know why he acted on such a stupid impulse and he was angry at himself, but at the same time he couldn't stop.

Her sweater left her shoulders and neck on full display and he could clearly see the outline of her collarbone as she shifted, shuffling closer as she straddled his lap. Katsuki's gaze travelled up her neck and he almost growled as she licked her lips slowly and he thought of all the things he wanted to do to that mouth.

It was crazy how sexy Ochaco was and she didn't even know it.

"Are you guys all fin-" Tsuyu lingered by the door, staring at them quizzically with her big dark eyes. "Izuku, come look at this!"

They scrambled apart like two magnets acting as repelling forces. It was almost comical how quickly they broke apart, as though the mere thought of them touching in front of other people was so mortifying that they had to hide it at all costs. Yet he could get her all hot and bothered unknowingly under the dinner table with Deku and Frog looking on, none the wiser.

The kids ran in like a swarm of tadpoles, latching onto Katsuki's legs as he grinned down at them. He probably looked a little fucked up because Kirishima really didn't hold back when he threw punches but the boys had been in enough accidents to know what a bloody nose looked like.

"I don't know what you said to him on the phone, but they haven't said anything offensive since. I couldn't get them to stop repeating it before." Izuku said, his smile filled with genuine appreciation. "Thanks, Kacchan!"

"The pleasure's all mine." Katsuki grinned manically.

Little did Deku know, but he had already started a death clock for the time that kid hit fifteen, when he would finally unleash hell by taking him under his wing, teaching the little squirt words so fucked up that the mere mention of them would have Deku and Frog fainting.

They head off soon after because Deku and Frog needed to put the kids to bed and get up for work in the morning. Truth be told, Katsuki felt a little weird when things were left unsaid and he wanted to talk to Ochaco about everything that happened and clear the air a bit.

When they sat in the car, it was a while before either of them spoke. Maybe they were both waiting for the other person to start the conversation and in the end, they both ended up in silence. It was strange feeling so out of sync, and he didn't want to bring anything up if that wasn't the primary thought in her mind.

"I know I pushed you before and I'm hoping that you can forget what I said about - you know, us being together." Ochaco laughed weakly, hiding her hurt.

This was the opposite of how he wanted the conversation to go, but he wasn't about to go swimming against the current. If she wanted to back down on what she said, then that was her prerogative and he wouldn't fight her on it.

"Don't sweat it." Katsuki wasn't sure how to phrase his words to be reassuring, but that didn't stop him from trying. "While you're under my roof you don't need to fuck around to get what you want, you just need to ask and I'll do it. I've got plenty of other side chicks who I keep around for that kind of thing so you've got nothing to worry about, dumbass."

Katsuki took his eyes off the road for a split second, and looked at her. On his first year working as a cop, he saw some really fucked up shit go down and each and every time, it was like time itself stopped and he was watching things in slow motion. That was how he felt when looking at her face as her eyebrows pinched and her expression contorted, the lines on her skin creasing as she began to sob. Then her hands covered her face and his eyes darted back to the road.

The fabric wasn't enough to soak in her tears, even when she kept her arms perpetually pressed to her face. Katsuki was torn between pulling up and driving faster so they could get home. The indecision had him almost veering off the side of the road as he sped up and thought of parking on the curb at the same time.

Eventually he had to pull over because they were already outside their apartment.

"I can't get out because people will see me crying and I hate when people see me crying you know that!" Ochaco blubbered, her chin wobbling. "God, I never used to cry no matter how hard life got and now that I don't have to worry anymore all I do is cry."

Katsuki pulled Ochaco's hands away from her face and burned the image of her sadness into his memory so carefully that it was almost a photograph. He felt so frustrated that everything he did seemed to result in the opposite reaction he wanted.

There was no point trying to be a nice guy when it didn't work out for him anyways. It was best just to be himself and handle things on his own terms. No, he was going to go with the original caveman plan by picking her up like a primordial man and carrying her up the flight of stairs.

In one clean motion, he lifted her up and simultaneously smashed her head against the roof of the car. It wasn't the best plan now that he thought about it, but from her mixture of crying and hysterical laughter, she wasn't hurting that bad from the impact.

Ochaco buried her head against his shoulder as he punched in the apartment code and made his way up the stairs. When they were on the final stretch right outside their unit, he felt the soft feathered touch of her lips against his neck and he shivered involuntarily.

"Bakugo…"

"Hm?" He hummed, shutting the door behind them. She still didn't let go of him, locking her legs around his waist.

"If I want something all I have to do is ask, right?"

"Out with it then." The feeling of her fingers brushing through the golden locks on the back of his neck relaxed him as he waited.

"Please don't see any other girls." Ochaco pleaded, her grip tightening around him as though if she didn't constrict him he would run off with one of the aforementioned women right when she let go. "Please…"

Katsuki wouldn't lie, he found the jealousy streak in her really damn sexy. The only problem was she was a wreck right now and tears were just one of his many turn-offs. He couldn't press her further while she was so upset and right now his primary goal was making her stop fucking crying.

"Yeah, like that will happen while you're here. How the fuck does that saying go?" Katsuki thought for a moment. "Two's company, three's a crowd."

Ochaco seemed to relax, as though a big weight fell from her shoulders and her body was more languid in his grip. He felt like if he didn't hold her tighter, she would slip through his fingers and fall to the floor and right now, Katsuki really didn't want to let her go.

"One last thing…" Ochaco giggled, hugging him tightly while he still held her in his arms. "Take me to bed or lose me forever."

For some men, it was breakfast. For others, it was a girl who loved watching sports and cheered for their favourite team. The way to Katsuki's heart was the fact that she could be three sheets to the wind watching his favourite movie with him and still quote it perfectly the day after.

Katsuki hated to admit it, but he was fucking whipped.

…

 **Thanks for reading everyone!**

 **Also, before I forget: to the anon worried about my update schedule, I'm still doing twice a week, don't worry! I was just sick this week and had a couple of emergencies I had to deal with and I should be good now.**

 **I love you all and can't wait to hear what you think!**


	7. Chapter 7 - The Plan

**Hi everyone, I appreciate the person who said my pacing was a bit fast last chapter – I'll try to slow things down a bit. Thanks again!**

 **Also: sorry for the late update again. It's been a big week. Failed a test and it's actually my dad's birthday today so I've been kind of trying to unwind and destress (so that I can pump up stress levels more when I have to retake it) and hype my dad up for retirement.**

….

There were some serious perks that came with having a lady live in the house. One being it always somehow smelled like flowers, no matter what room you stepped in, be it the laundry where he kept his sweat-soaked gym clothes or even the kitchen where he just finished chopping up onions. The second perk was by far the best, which was being able to shamelessly watch effectively two women practicing yoga – one on the screen and the other in his living room.

Ochaco lifted her ass into the air, her upper body bowed forward with her back as straight as an arrow while she transitioned into downward dog. Katsuki almost forgot that the spoon goes in the mouth, not around it. He could see the pattern of her underwear through her tights and he almost bowed down in worship, thanking whoever it was who had the ingenuity to think of lace, polka dot and skin tight semi-transparent tights.

Exhaling, she relaxed down into a plank position and Katsuki whistled, watching the sweat roll down her neck as she breathed evenly. Breaking form, she turned over to fix him with a dirty look, as the woman in the video settled back into downward dog again.

"Stop glaring at me!" Ochaco turned her head, puffing her cheeks as she pouted at him. "What's your problem anyway?"

"Your fat ass is blocking the hot chick on TV!" Katsuki pointed his spoon at her, wet cereal and milk flying. "If you weren't so thick we wouldn't be having a problem right now!"

"If you got down here and tried to follow along, I bet you wouldn't even be able to keep up with a fatty like me!" Ochaco stuck her tongue out, turning to prepare for the next move as she watched the television carefully.

"You're on, fuck-face!" Katsuki got down on the floor so quick he almost walked the dinosaur. "Let's do this."

To put things into perspective, before Ochaco came into his life the only places he ever went when he left the house were work and gym, not counting his daily run every morning. He had a body fat percentage of ten percent and although he loved to brag, it was pretty much a fact that he was sculpted like the gods themselves.

Katsuki followed along easily because most of the difficult forms were just strength training core muscles. He was the kind of guy who liked to work every muscle at the gym and he evened out his workout so that everything aligned with perfect balance. They weren't glamour muscles, they were the real deal.

Keeping up was easy and he could even settle himself in some of the more difficult poses that Ochaco struggled with. However, there was one thing he couldn't manage to do no matter how hard he tried.

Ochaco muffled her laughter by pressing her mouth against her arm as she looked up at him smugly, her palms planted in front of her feet as she easily stood without a bend in her knee. She was so flexible she could not only touch her toes but press her hands against the ground in front of her feet. Katsuki couldn't make it past his knees without his body pulling back, like when you stretch a rubber band too far and it comes dangerously close to snapping.

Giving up, he huffed as though he didn't care – when actually he cared quite a lot – and drank some juice in the fridge straight from the carton.

"So? You're fucking flexible. Do you want a medal?" Katsuki flopped down on the couch, looking up yoga classes on his phone so that he could sneak out every once and a while and get better than her in secret.

"Yes, in fact I do." Ochaco grinned, spreading her legs apart as she walked her hands forward so that her body pressed down into the floor while her legs split evenly on either side. "I think pole dancing should be an Olympic sport."

"I get it. You got a soft spot for yoga because you used to be a working girl and it helped out with the flexibility and strength for the pole, right?" Katsuki rested his cheek against his palm while he watched her. "You're too fucking sentimental."

Ochaco laughed, turning the television off while she got up to drink some juice. She smiled to herself and he wondered what she thought about in the privacy of her mind.

"I know it's dumb but I always used to be kind of clumsy and dorky in high school and boys didn't really like me that much…" Ochaco pondered thoughtfully, "I just thought that if I learned something sexy like this, things would change."

Katsuki kind of understood what she meant. Although, he doubted Ochaco understood what kind of predicament she got herself in, by nature of being herself. The kind of girl a boy likes in high school is someone who will put out, because at that stage in their lives it's pretty much the number one thing on their minds. Ochaco was sweet and innocent and the thought of fucking her back then bordered on sacrilegious. She was glued to Deku either way so everyone backed off, thinking they were a done deal.

"Didn't you go out with Deku?" Katsuki tried not to sound so bitter, but he was bad at keeping composure. "I thought you two were made for each other."

"I guess we did kind of liked each other."

Ochaco admitted it and it hurt, but Katsuki didn't know why it hurt. It was a decade ago and everyone had moved forward from that time and Deku was happily married. Ochaco wasn't the kind of bitch who would sabotage a marriage because of some romantic expectation with first love.

Katsuki got back down to business, sautéing the onions while he prepped the meat paddies. The one thing he didn't like about cooking was the time it took to prepare meals that were big enough to sustain him. He definitely wouldn't have the time when he went back to work.

"You know I always thought about what it would be like if Deku was my husband. I looked at him every day and I thought that he was the man I was going to marry. But," Ochaco paused, and unknowingly Katsuki had held his breath as he waited for her to finish. "But – I couldn't imagine us really… doing it."

"Doing it?" Katsuki frowned, trying to translate her shitty phrasing. "You mean actually going through with getting hitched or fucking?"

"That's so gross! Don't say it that way!" Ochaco blushed as her face screwed up with embarrassment. "I couldn't imagine touching him like that and having him touch me. I don't even think I could kiss him without some irrational fear that I would somehow lose him forever and then what if I didn't enjoy _it_? What if everything was perfect except this one part of our relationship was really bad and it just ruined everything?"

"You think about useless shit too much."

"Haven't you ever been afraid of losing someone important to you by messing things up when everything is just almost perfect as it is?"

Katsuki understood that feeling too well. He was there right now on a bridge between friends and lovers with the ravine of potential rejection and disgust roaring under his feet as he tried to pick a side. Being friends was safe and secure and he would never lose her – that was, until she found someone else and he met with the guy in a dark corner and beat the fucker to death. Being lovers would be wild and everything he wanted, but that wasn't necessarily what Ochaco wanted either.

"It's been ten years since then and there hasn't been anyone out there you've thought of fucking and loving at the same time?" Katsuki grinned.

"Oh, you have no idea."

They gazed at each other from across the counter, their bodies crackling and alert but their voices silent, and for a moment they felt entirely connected, as though finding the same radio frequency. Katsuki's body felt light, as though nothing surrounded them except infinite space and his breathing came out slow and unnatural as he stared into her chocolate brown eyes. Then his mobile vibrated against the marble countertop while Kenny Loggins blasted from his shitty phone speakers and they both crashed back down to orbit.

Ochaco left to take a shower and he answered the phone, feeling frustrated out of his god damn mind.

"What the fuck do you want?" He answered, deliberately smashing pans around the kitchen.

"Easy, dude. It's me!" Kirishima laughed on the other end, as though the fucker _knew_ he interrupted a moment. "Come meet me for coffee?"

Katsuki's knee jerk response was to tell him he was fucking busy and he would rather meet him in hell. The problem with that was the house felt like a sauna with all the weird sexual tension and Kirishima gave him a convenient out.

Things were still weird with Ochaco after the fight. She wanted to pretend it didn't happen and he wanted to pretend he was a decent guy, but his self-restraint was waning.

"Yeah, where at?"

"You sound so keen," Kirishima said, his usual good humour not making a dint in Katsuki's bad mood. "Porno Graffitti. I'm already here so hurry up!"

Kirishima hung up the phone.

Porno Graffitti was their old spot. Kirishima loved that place because hands down they did the best burgers and sandwiches in the city. Katsuki _used_ to love that place because they had the smoothest coffee liqueurs he had ever had in his life. Since he wasn't going to drink anymore, he decided to take a leaf out of Kirishima's book and just enjoy sobriety and burgers.

Getting his keys and wallet, Katsuki was almost out the door when he remembered something. As a house-warming present, his mother gave him this old dingy white board shaped like a noticeboard that she stuck to the fridge. She would always leave him notes for when he got back from school or in the morning before he left, always leaving a part of her and dad home when they had to leave early or stay late for work.

Most of the time it was 'Get milk, you shit-heel', or 'Don't stay up late, fuck-face', but sometimes she would write something that made him pause before he violently wiped away the marker. Before he left home, she wrote him five words: 'I fucking love you, son'.

Biting off the lid of the marker, Katsuki wrote down a quick message for Ochaco. He started writing a generic message but decided against it. He wanted to do something that would make her laugh when she saw it. He wrote in big letters, 'RAMPAGING' – time to completion: two hours and thirty-four minutes and just for her sake he drew a loading bar at the bottom. Remembering that if you're truly proud of your work, you sign it - he did.

….

Porno Graffitti was everything you would expect of a new age restaurant. It was trendy and came equip with a table cover that you could draw on with crayons. Filling in the time until their food was ready, Katsuki scribbled dicks on the table and explained how he met Ochaco to Kirishima.

He told him about how they met in an alleyway and how Ochaco had been doing god knows what. He delved into the weird chemistry they had and lead on with the weird vibes she gave him, of chasing him and letting him go like he was a fish being reeled in nice and slow. It was by far the most words he threw together without throwing 'fuck' in the mix.

"Wow." Kirishima whistled, sitting back as he digested all that information. "What do you want to do about her? Clean her life up and send her on her way?"

Katsuki didn't know what to say, so naturally he deflected.

"Fuck, you're an asshole." Katsuki drew a nice big dong smack bam in the middle of where Kirishima's plate would be. "Aren't you worried or weirded out about how fucked up her life turned out?"

"Not really." Kirishima bit a toothpick while he smiled. "She doesn't sound like she's in any danger right now and Ochaco can handle herself just fine."

"I fucking know that already!" Katsuki yelled, people in their immediate vicinity staring at him as though he just escaped from an insane asylum. He calmed down, "Fuck. This isn't what I came here to talk about anyways."

Kirishima being the shithead he was drew a nice big heart with an O.U and K.B inside, just cute enough to really set him off.

"Go fucking die in a hole." Katsuki said, getting up. "I'm leaving."

"Wait!" Scrambling up, Kirishima grabbed his arm and held him onto him, "I was only joking around. I'll help, just tell me what you need me to do."

Their food came and Katsuki's attention zeroed in on solely the burger as he covered the entire inside with chilli sauce and turned the fries into a sticky hot chilli mayhem, calling the waitress for another bottle. He watched as Kirishima smiled at him with a look that was awkward and unsure but mostly sentimental.

"What?"

"You're still the same as always." Kirishima blinked back tears as he laughed softly. "I can't believe you still have tastebuds even to this day."

Katsuki forgot that they hadn't done this for years. He honestly felt as though it was yesterday when they were meeting up all the time, talking about their dreams of being cops, working together and cleaning up the streets. Well, _his_ dream of being a cop.

"You're looking a bit beat up but can't say you've changed much either, you fucker." Katsuki smirked and he felt the mood slowly lighten as Kirishima laughed. "I won't leave you hanging anyway, but I will say it's a big ask."

"Go for it."

"I want to bring the old class back together for her birthday." Katsuki's expression was serious as he gazed at Kirishima from across the table. "I want it to be a surprise."

"Shit." Kirishima barely touched his food as he leaned forward, drawn into their conversation. "You must really like her, huh?"

Katsuki squeezed hot sauce all over Kirishima's plate, spelling out profanities in perfect cursive as it muddled together to form something oddly artistic. In his rage, he felt like a real Vincent van Gogh as he created art that was truly unique and beautiful. Kirishima was less than impressed, however. He did not appreciate Katsuki's artistic talents, especially when they were at his expense.

"Are you seriously going to do that when you're coming to me for favours?" Kirishima scraped off most of the sauce and tapped it onto Katsuki's plate with the spoon. "When is Ochaco's birthday anyway? I remember it's sometime late in the year but not the exact date."

Katsuki didn't know when her birthday was.

Quickly, he texted Deku and got a response almost immediately. It was the twenty-seventh of December, an easy date to remember and also conveniently plenty of time to find everyone from their old class and bring them together.

"We've got the whole fucking year to figure this out." Katsuki munched into his burger, relieved that it wasn't something like next week or anything. "Just got to find everyone, let em know the plan and get something organised."

"That's actually not a bad idea." Kirishima scrolled through his phone, "I'll call everyone I kept in contact with and see if we can find everyone. It shouldn't be that hard."

"I couldn't do it without you, man." Katsuki smiled.

…

 **That's it for this chapter guys!**

 **I love hearing your reviews and thank you so much for writing them and motivating me and helping me improve! Thank you especially to all the people who reviewed each chapter individually. You have no idea how much that helps me out!**

 **Love you guys!**


	8. Chapter 8 - Banquet of Darkness

**Chapter 8 – Banquet of Darkness**

 **Hey guys, just wanted to let you all know that you are all just seriously great. I can't believe the positivity from everyone and the fandom in general!**

 **Thanks for sticking with me this past month (and a bit?), I really appreciate it.**

 **Enjoy~**

….

Katsuki flicked over the phone screen quickly as Ochaco's prying eyes peered over his shoulder. Her face was brimming with curiosity, transitioning to mild irritation when she noticed the black screen.

"Why can't you let me see?" Ochaco hummed suspiciously, reaching over his shoulder to grab his mobile. "Are you hiding something from me?"

Katsuki sprung up from the couch and held the phone high above his head. Ochaco was as quick as a mongoose but she had nothing on his height. His biggest mistake was grinning smugly at her while he did it, because she was a girl that never said no to a challenge.

Like lightening, she hopped up on the couch and launched for his shoulders, jabbing her knees into his ribcage as she crawled up his torso. He was still bruised from the fight he had with Kirishima, but a lot less worse for wear now that he had a couple of days to heal. She wrapped her legs around his shoulders and reached for the phone while he swayed, trying to keep his balance.

"Oi!" Katsuki growled, trying to shake her off. "You're fucking heavy, you bitch!"

"Tell me what it is or I'll bite!"

Katsuki was less afraid of her teeth and more afraid of suffocating under her monkey grip. This was not how he imagined his head between her thighs, but it was hard to steer the ship in the direction he wanted their unconventional relationship to go when she operated at her own weird pace. He could feel his face going red as the oxygen in his lungs went through a gradual genocide.

Just as he was about to throw her to the ground, he thought about the rules of wrestling with a woman. It wasn't like they hadn't playfully fought before, and he had to admit it was weirdly sexy and a turn on for a girl to like playing rough. The problem was drawing the line between fucking around and a trip to the hospital. He wished there was a referee and a doctor on call to help him hash this out.

Was it okay to throw her down or did he have to swing her over his head so she was cushioned by the couch? All of this would be much simpler if he took her to the bedroom.

"Fuck that hurts!" Katsuki roared as her teeth pierced the skin on his arm.

Katsuki dropped the phone on the ground and she hopped down and reached for it, the prize almost in her grasp. He had to say something – anything – that would stop her from picking up that phone and reading what was on the screen.

This was a life or death situation.

"It's porn!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. "It's fucking porn, okay!"

Ochaco recoiled, as though his mobile was a nasty spill of toxic waste. As she leered at him, he could see her nose scrunch up with disgust. All that work of trying to seem like a decent guy and trying his best to not fuck everything up went down the drain in a second. A plethora of different equally embarrassing yet salvageable excuses popped up in his head almost instantly, but the damage was already done.

"Really?" Ochaco asked.

"Mm." He forced out, hating lying more viscerally than any other thing on the planet, especially now.

"Do you swear on your mother's life?"

This bitch played hardball.

Katsuki could feel the sweat building up on his brow as she scrutinised him, the catharsis of revealing the truth too great under the pressure of potential humiliation he would have to suffer from her opinion of him plummeting.

Katsuki was saved by the bell quite literally, when the doorbell rang and Ochaco raced over to answer. He picked his phone up from the ground and opened the web browser. Not even Kirishima's punches hurt more than the look she gave him and he sighed with frustration.

After a glance at his old yearbook and a quick google search, Katsuki found Tokoyami. He didn't know why, but the name had somehow rooted itself into his mind. Given how little he gave a shit about other people, that was a big deal.

By day, Fumikage Tokoyami was a well-known private investigator. Not the kind that tailed cheating spouses, but the real fucking deal. That wasn't the interesting part, not by a long shot. What really got Katsuki hooked was what Tokoyami _allegedly_ did by night.

When he first joined the force, there was talk of a vigilante that called himself 'Tsukuyomi'. He operated exclusively at night and took down the most prestigious criminals in the city. The type of people this masked menace busted were the most slippery, influential fuckers ever known to man. They were spotless, involved in the upper echelons of society, and to top it off, committed the most fucked up crimes imaginable. They had human trafficking rings, made people go missing without a trace and nobody could touch them.

At least, no one chained to bureaucracy.

Nobody ever caught Tsukuyomi. Nobody ever had any idea who he was, because he never left any evidence. It went under Katsuki's nose for years, but bringing up all the shit from the past struck a chord with him and gave him the insight to finally figure it out.

Who the fuck else would it be, other than Tokoyami? He went to school with the guy. Katsuki had seen how he kept a low profile and always kept to himself. The biggest clue of all was the time they had that school camp, and everyone saw how much of a different person he was at night.

This put him in a weird bind, because _technically_ he should probably turn Tokoyami in. It was damn illegal what he was doing. The only reason Katsuki hesitated was because it was the most fucking badass thing he had ever heard of, and he was insanely jealous that he didn't think of doing something that cool first.

He may have been a cop, and catching a well-known vigilante justice hero would have awarded him so many brownie points. Still, he couldn't ignore the fact that Tokoyami did what he couldn't do: he caught all the degenerates that were rich and powerful enough to destroy a paper trail without anyone batting an eye.

They were both on the same team, just in different roles and for that Tokoyami deserved the fucking respect not to get snitched on.

Katsuki snapped out of his reverie as he felt Ochaco's hand slide into the back pocket of his jeans where he left his wallet. She smiled up at him and whispered, "Someone with a lucrative business opportunity."

He thought he was on the blacklist of every cult and every marketing scam in the city after what he did to the last guy that showed up pedalling their shit.

"Tell those multi-level marketing fuckers that if they come knocking again selling their shit, I'll break my foot multiple levels up their ass." Katsuki said, protecting his wallet from her compassionate and naïve hands.

"Kacchan," Ochaco laughed, holding him back from walking to the door. "It's a girl scout, you dummy."

"Right," He handed her a twenty and went back to finding Tokoyami's contact details. "Go nuts."

First, he needed to send a message to Kirishima letting him know they found the bird. He was by far the best target to start off with since he could help them out the most in finding everyone else. He also filled Kirishima in on the activities Tokoyami got up to at night so they could be ready for anything.

Naturally, Kirishima would have to call him up because if Katsuki even tried, it was likely the bird wouldn't show. It would seem like too much of an obvious bait and regardless, Kirishima was more of a people person.

….

"Is this where he said to meet him?" Katsuki felt antsy. "That fucker better show."

"Yeah, he was very precise about it." Kirishima said, entirely unfazed. "You need to chill, man."

There was something Katsuki found really aesthetically pleasing about an urban maze. They were surrounded by brick with not many escape routes, which was odd given the fact that there was no way Tokoyami would be dumb enough to not assume this was somehow a set-up. Where was the bird going to run if this actually was a bust?

"So," Kirishima elbowed him in the ribs that were still real fucking tender from Ochaco's assault earlier that day. "You and Ochaco like each other."

That was another sore spot for Katsuki.

"I don't really know, dude." Katsuki admitted, honestly. "I don't think she's that into me."

Katsuki hated sounding so insecure and whiny about something this mundane, but he wasn't about to hold out with his best friend.

"Yeah?"

"Well, she fucking climbs all over me and is all touchy and shit." Katsuki explained, huffing. "She's really fucking weird. She was talking to fucking Frog about my dick the other day and crying about me fucking other girls."

"Dude." Kirishima glared at him as though he was the densest motherfucker in the world. "Are you kidding me?"

"Fuck off and hear me out."

Katsuki wasn't quite sure how to explain the weird feeling he had, mostly because it was instinct rather than well thought out logic. Rather, because it was instinct he knew it to be true and logic muddied the waters, because emotions weren't logical.

"You know how she was with Deku in high school?" Katsuki kicked a can against the wall as he shuffled his feet. "She was all shy and shit. Wouldn't stop looking at him like he was Brad Pitt or some other famous asshole. Ochaco got really embarrassed when he'd touch her, even if it was accidental. When he was around, she kinda just… lit up."

"Ah." Kirishima whistled. "You are so fucking whipped, my dude."

"Shut the fuck up."

"You think that because she's all over you, she's not that into you." Kirishima laughed, clapping him on the shoulder roughly. "Ochaco must have the patience of a saint, unlike some idiot I know."

Just because he had a fucked up heated temper didn't mean he didn't have patience. He had shitloads of patience. Enough to stand there, nearly frothing from the mouth with rage while he considered killing Kirishima in over a thousand different ways. The only reason he didn't beat him to death right at that second was because his knuckles were healing from the last beating.

"Kirishima," Tokoyami appeared from behind a corner, "You wanted to meet with me."

Tokoyami's hands were resting in his pockets and he appeared very calm, but there was no way he didn't notice how livid Katsuki was. "It seems you came with company. There was no need for that."

"No dude he's not here for _that_ – it's something else." Kirishima instantly started deflecting, knowing Tokoyami's fight or flight senses were kicking in. "We are honestly here to talk."

Kirishima singlehandedly did the one thing he shouldn't have done. He mentioned that _thing_ , bringing attention to the secret that really, they shouldn't have known about. The secret Katsuki _especially_ shouldn't know about, because he was a cop.

Now Tokoyami knew that they knew.

The only reason Katsuki had any inclination that Tokoyami was a vigilante in the first place was because he was as smart as a whip, but Kirishima generally didn't speculate about people and took everyone at face value. Now that it was out there that they knew, they couldn't take it back.

"It's not like you can run anyways." Katsuki said, grinning.

Kirishima turned to look at him, not much unlike how Ochaco glared at him this morning. It wasn't like he was lying – there really was nowhere to run and they had this in the bag. Before Katsuki could bring up plans on finding the old class, Tokoyami launched himself into the air, reaching for a nearby ladder that lead to the roof.

"Now you've done it." Kirishima sighed, as Katsuki raced up and chased Tokoyami on impulse. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

"I'm not letting him get away until he's heard me out!" Katsuki growled, his eyes trained on the bird.

It was a good thing he stopped drinking because his old reflexes and agility were back full force and he at least had a chance at keeping up with the swift fucker. As Katsuki climbed up to the roof, he knew that victory was in his reach.

There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

That was, until Tokoyami jumped over to the adjacent building, tucking and rolling at the last minute. Katsuki wasn't the kind of guy to hesitate or give up when it came to chasing someone down. He flung himself off the side and hit the solid concrete, the impact sending pain up his ankles like an electric shock.

Tokoyami was already looking for his next route of escape when Kirishima yelled at the top of his lungs, "He's trying to help a girl!"

The raven stopped in his tracks and turned to gazed at them carefully. Tokoyami stood close enough that Katsuki could properly size him up. He hadn't grown much in the last decade and even Deku must have been a head taller than him now. The lean muscle and lithe body was so contrasting in comparison to Katsuki's form that he almost felt disappointed.

They would never be able to duke it out to see who was the best because they were simply just too different. In a race of agility, Tokoyami would win hands down. He was wily enough to climb up buildings and race around the city, strong enough to hold his own in combat against a normal person and was by far equally as dedicated to fitness as Katsuki.

In a fight however, Katsuki could easily overpower him without any problems. Still, he couldn't deny the fact that they were equally matched, but just too dissimilar.

"What do you need me to do?" Tokoyami asked, looking over across the building at Kirishima.

"She's-"

"Don't fucking say anything!" Katsuki interrupted, glaring. "I'm not rehashing all that shit to just anyone, dude."

Katsuki didn't want to broadcast Ochaco's chequered past to everyone in the class because he felt as though that would fuck up everything he strived to achieve from bringing everyone together in the first place. He wanted her to move on from that for good and telling everyone would leave a mark that she wouldn't be able to run from for the rest of her life. No – he would only talk to their closest friends about it.

"Everyone has their secrets." Tokoyami was sharp enough to figure out that whatever it was, it was reputation damaging. "Go on, then."

"We want to get the old class together for Uraraka's birthday." Kirishima spoke, as laidback as ever. "We're looking for everyone now and I saw that you're a private investigator and thought you'd be the guy we asked first."

Katsuki really didn't know what he'd do without Kirishima, and all the teasing he did moments before was forgiven. He wished he had a way with people and a natural charisma, but anything outside leadership was like pulling teeth for Katsuki.

Still, he wanted to change and be better.

"Listen." Katsuki said, catching Tokoyami's attention. "We all have our secrets and I get that, but look – I'm only gonna say this once – I think what you do is really fucking badass, man."

Tokoyami said nothing, reaching out and offering his hand. Katsuki didn't know if it was something he picked up on from being a cop, but he really appreciated a guy with a firm handshake. It spoke more than words ever could about a person's character.

As Katsuki let go, he scratched the back of his head and looked away uncomfortably. It wasn't often he paid someone a compliment and saying something from the heart like that left him irritated beyond belief. He wasn't cut out for this shit and being nice was more Kirishima's thing, but he already decided he was going to get everyone together for Ochaco's birthday and he would do whatever it took.

"I feel that we're all a little overdue for a reunion, but I'll help you both out in any way I can." Tokoyami's voice was low and smooth, "Understand I can't actively approach anyone given I don't really understand the circumstances, but I'm more than willing to provide you with contact details for anyone I happen to find."

"Aw man, you are so fucking awesome!" Kirishima gushed. "Why is it that everyone in our class turned out so great?"

The answer hung in the air, unsaid between them.

It was because of All Might and the things he taught them. No one except Deku knew what All Might was doing now, but he was probably still off saving the world, one person at a time.

…

 **Thanks for reading guys, I really appreciate it!**

 **Please leave me a review so I know who is still reading, because it motivates the hell out of me.**

 **ACTUALLY – before I forget – I've got a fantasy kacchako AU in the works and I'm just hashing everything out now. What are your thoughts, guys?**

 **Love you all lots!**


	9. Chapter 9 - Cute Aggression

**Chapter 9 – Cute Aggression: Part 1**

 **This ended up weirdly long so I decided to make it a bit of an arc. I hope you guys enjoy it!**

…

"Seriously? You're going out again?" Ochaco whined and yanked his shirt with her surprisingly strong grip as she tried to drag him back inside. "Do you hate having me around or something?"

If they kept this up she was going to stretch out his shirt and then he would have to suffer through more fucking shopping. It wasn't a bad shirt either – it represented exactly how he felt to the core of his being, summed up with the perfect slogan: 'What are you looking at, dick-nose?'.

"Let me go, you fucking shorty!"

Katsuki gripped her head with his hand and pushed down playfully as she squirmed.

"Stop it, you're going to make me even shorter." Ochaco pouted, but instead of pulling his shirt, she wrapped her arms around him. "I'm not letting you go."

Katsuki knew deep down they couldn't fight in front of his door forever and eventually one of them would have to give in. At the same time, he hated nothing more than losing and that meant the only option was to sneak away before she realised it.

"Go get fucking dressed then." Katsuki sighed, trying his hardest not to smirk. "You win."

Ochaco grinned and sprinted to the bedroom as she squealed about how excited she was. He could hear her talking to herself as she picked out clothes and wondered how someone like that could ever get lonely when apparently, she couldn't shut the fuck up even with herself. Didn't matter to Katsuki either way, because it meant she let her guard down.

Katsuki played the mission impossible theme song in his head while he got psyched up for the stealth mission. He turned the door knob as slowly as humanly possible, trying his hardest not to make even the slightest noise. Pausing and listening, he heard Ochaco still rambling on as the wardrobe door rolled.

The latch clicked and the door swung open, but only enough that he could manoeuvre through as though invisible lasers would zap his flesh apart if he wasn't entirely careful. Crippled under the suspense, Katsuki reigned himself back in. He was just opening a fucking door, not robbing a bank.

Now, it was the home stretch.

All he had to do was shut the door and walk away casually, because there was no way Ochaco could catch up with him when she was halfway through getting dressed. It wasn't like she would chase him down the street in her underwear.

Relishing his small victory, he shut the door more loudly than he normally would. Maybe he wanted to rub it in that he won or maybe somewhere within his confident, triumphant ego, he had a tiny desire to self-sabotage every potential chance at success he got. Not that it mattered, he fucking hated shrinks and Freud was long dead and buried along with his weird mother complex.

Katsuki was almost at the end of the hallway when Ochaco burst through the door. He was ready to run but something made him turn to face her, like a deer faced with the blinding headlights of an oncoming car. For a moment, his life flashed before his eyes and he replayed everything from the day he was born to the present moment. Ochaco didn't wait for him to dramatically play through every scenario as she tackled the wind out of his lungs and he skidded down against the tiles, wheezing as he tried to catch his breath.

She picked the cute pink lingerie set – white bows on either side of her hips, as well as one wrapping her breasts together, like a sexy present. He could see her skin through the thin fabric, an intricate flower pattern overlapping her nipples so that they were teasingly hidden from his prying eyes.

Tasteful, elegant and well designed.

Katsuki wondered if he had a concussion. It had been so long since he became entirely lost in his thoughts, the awareness of the world around him slipping away as his focus narrowed onto one stupid fucking girl.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Katsuki spluttered, regaining his breath.

"I want to understand why you keep running away from me all the time. I said sorry and I thought we were good and things weren't weird anymore between us, but you keep avoiding me and-" Ochaco was getting flustered.

Katsuki was no better off.

As she straddled him, her hips came dangerously close to something that grew tight in his jeans as he felt her on top of him. Seeing her like this made him feel like a man in the desert, mouth parched and dry as someone dangled a bottle of ice cold spring water in his face. He never thought the anger management classes would ever help him in life, but he tried to exercise restraint using the key methods.

The first step in anger management was organising your thoughts and rationalising why you feel angry. Katsuki felt angry because he wanted to fuck her brains out. He wanted to make her feel so good that he ruined her for other men. The thought of another person seeing her in that hallway half-naked made him almost want to commit war-crimes. More than that, there was something that ran deeper – he wanted her to quit giving money to her parents and do something with her life.

"You want to talk inside or out here in your fucking underwear, dumbass." Katsuki growled as he tore off his shirt and threw it over her shoulders. "You are fucking mental, you know that?"

Anger management was a fucking joke. There was no way he could tell her how much he wanted to rail her. That would be singlehandedly the worst thing he could ever do.

"I hate this shirt." Ochaco slipped her arms through and straightened the fabric as she read the words at the front.

"Yeah, well I fucking hate you right now."

Ochaco stiffened and Katsuki froze, smothered under feelings of remorse. There was nothing worse than waiting for her to cry and he couldn't bear to look at her. His skin crawled when she pressed her palm to his cheek and made him look up at her.

"You can hate me all you like." Ochaco said, a sad smile on her face. "I won't mind if you wake me up every day by telling me that you hate me. Say it to me while we eat meals together. Tell me each night how much you hated me that day. I don't mind at all – but don't leave me alone when I'm asleep and don't just go without telling me where you're going and when you'll be back. That hurts a thousand times more than you saying you hate me."

Ochaco's smile made all the anger and frustration subside and he became strangely calm, like an ocean after a storm. He followed her back in, not failing to notice how her hand shook as she opened their apartment door.

"I can leave if you don't want me here." Ochaco said simply, her voice oddly peppy. "I didn't want to annoy you, but I was just so happy seeing a familiar face and I got carried away."

"You only annoy me when you bring up shit like this." Katsuki admitted. "I don't have a problem with you staying here. That isn't an issue."

"Then is it about all the things I said?"

"No!"

Katsuki growled with frustration and nearly tore out his own hair. He vaguely recalled the times he accidentally sat through a romantic movie and it all boiled down to shitty communication. At one stage, he yelled at the screen in a cinema, 'Fucking talk to each other!'. It was the only time people clapped when he heckled a movie yet like all the other times, he was thrown out regardless.

Real life wasn't the same as a movie. Katsuki couldn't tell her that he was out trying to find the old class to bring them together for her sake. He couldn't explain his bizarre feelings of wanting to fuck her but also somehow want to be with her on a personal level. In every other case in his life when it came to women, it was either one or the other – not both. Katsuki especially didn't want to say the reason he was going out this time, but it seemed like he had no choice.

"Alright then, sit the fuck down. It's a long story." Katsuki tried to rub the shame that crept up the back of his neck. "You ever wonder how I can afford all this? The brand-new car, the apartment, all the other assets I haven't fucking told you about…"

"Through hard work and careful planning?"

"Fuck yeah." Katsuki grinned. "For starters, I don't give away every cent I make to my folks, which I hear helps when you're tryin' to hustle cash."

Ochaco laughed and Katsuki felt at ease. He felt like with Kirishima he had to keep up appearances and he couldn't talk about anything that was too overly personal. With Ochaco, he felt like she could see straight through him, which in and of itself was scary, but also made it easier to talk about these things.

"If it makes it easier, we can go tit for tat and I'll talk about something sensitive too." Ochaco smiled warmly, her face alight with relief and happiness. "Go on, then."

Katsuki wanted to know all about her sensitive spots, especially the ones she didn't know about yet. He had to let that go because that guy would never be him. Some other lucky fucker could scout those uncharted lands and maybe call that body a home. Ochaco wasn't an island you could reach shore, explore and then sail away from and that's all Katsuki knew how to do.

"You know how my parents are designers, right?" Katsuki looked away, "Sometimes they call me up and I do some work for them or their colleagues. That's where I'm supposed to be going today."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ochaco collapsed into his chest, her whole body shaking with laughter. "I think that is so cute!"

"Fuck you."

Her body was warm and soft and he liked seeing her in one of his shirts. Every time she touched him, he felt like he would spontaneously combust. The hardest part was knowing that the more attached he got, the tougher it would be when she left.

"Why are you so damn obsessed with taking care of your shitty parents?"

"Firstly, they aren't shitty parents." Ochaco said softly, her cheek pressed against his collarbone. "I don't know – I would watch daddy working every day. Construction is tough on the body and just seeing him working so hard every day and the times he didn't make any money because he paid his workers and bought things for the business instead of saving some for himself and mummy… It broke my heart."

"Sounds like your dad is shit at running a business." Katsuki said, without thinking. He wasn't sure why he said that but it was the first thing that came to mind. "Seems like your whole family is just as naïve as you are."

"So what!" Ochaco pressed her palms against his chest as she pulled away from him. "They take really good care of their workers and daddy's contracts need to be competitive so the business doesn't go under!"

"It was a compliment, you spastic." Katsuki pulled her head back into his chest as he sighed. "You can't be a nice guy and run a business."

"Mummy and daddy get by okay, but I want to just give them a little extra so that they can relax." Ochaco said, her cheek smooth against his skin. "I just want to give them some breathing room, you know what I mean?"

"Fuck that." Katsuki muttered under his breath.

"Huh?"

"What, do you think your parents would be happy that the money they get from their baby girl every now and then was from taking your clothes off and dancing for strangers?" Katsuki said, although it didn't come out nearly as nice as he thought in his head. "Go back to school and get a real fucking job."

Ochaco was quiet for a while and he wondered if what he said was too harsh. Katsuki could never be like Deku, who could always find a nice way to deliver solutions that made people feel better about themselves. Katsuki told things how they were and it was up to them if they took his advice or not.

"You know I always wanted to go to school, but I felt like I needed _permission_ to do something like that…" Ochaco said, her ears red as she averted her gaze.

That was a weird Freudian slip.

Suddenly, everything started to make sense and Katsuki almost slapped himself for not realising it before. Ochaco's almost obsessive urge to take care of her parents by abstaining from her own needs and sending them money instead. The fact that she seemed to put virtually everyone else in her life first and herself always last.

Of course, she didn't end up with Deku – even though he was the nice guy that good girls like Ochaco dream about marrying, he didn't have an assertive bone in his body. He was just too fucking nice.

Confidence wasn't an issue for Ochaco – she had plenty of it and she knew how smart and how strong she was. She just needed someone to say that it was okay to live for herself and Katsuki could be that guy.

"Ochaco."

She was like a damn puppy as her head lifted up in surprise.

"Go to fucking school."

"Okay!" Ochaco smiled and nodded her head. "I'll enrol and do my best and work myself to death if I have to!"

Katsuki hesitated, his hand hovering over the top of her head as he debated if this was a good idea. Gently, he ran his hand over her hair and ruffled the soft silky strands. Ochaco's cheeks were rosy as she beamed, holding his hand against her cheek.

It was hard to express all the feelings that welled up inside him. She was just too fucking much and Katsuki didn't know what to do with himself. Naturally, like all the times another emotion sprouted in his heart, he expressed it through anger.

"God, your face is so fucking round!" Katsuki pinched both her cheeks and stretched them out like she was made of mochi. "And what's with your eyebrows, are you a fucking Shibe or something?!"

"Yow hurwting meeee…" Ochaco mumbled as he continued his assault on her face. "Staaaahp!"

…..

 **Cute aggression refers to the almost-overwhelming urge to do violence to an object that we find incredibly adorable. The term was coined in 2013 by a research team from Yale University, led by then-graduate students Rebecca Dyer and Oriana Aragon.**

 **I can't wait to hear what you guys think so definitely leave a review! Also – thank you to everyone who reviews each chapter individually, it's really amazing that you take the time out of your day like that and urgh, I just can't say how much I appreciate it because it's too much!**

 **I wish I could respond to all the anonymous reviews too because I think it's great that you still go out of your way to send me your thoughts even though you don't have an account – I just wish I could respond to you guys and tell you how much it means to me that you do that so I'll just say so here.**

 **Love you guys and just a little more information on the Fantasy AU – I'm drafting everything up now so hopefully it should be up in all its glory in October. I know people are going with the hype train now and I'll miss out, but I need to plan for this because I'm not really that great at writing on the fly.**


	10. Chapter 10 - Cute Aggression: Part 2

**Chapter 10 – Cute Aggression Part 2 and 3**

 **I hope you guys enjoy the chapter! I decided – fuck it, let's just give everyone a big chapter and here it is in all its glory.**

…..

"Gawd, you're the wurst…" Ochaco tried to knock his hands away from her face, her patience at its limits. "Bakugo…!"

Katsuki sniggered as he kept up with his relentless assault on her dough-like cheeks. It wasn't like high school where she could give him a run for his money. He was so much bigger than her now that fighting her off was easy. Pushing on her forehead, he kept Ochaco out of reach as he answered his phone.

"What do you want- AHHH!" Katsuki broke the phone away from his face as Ochaco sunk her teeth deep into his shoulder. "Motherfucker!"

Speaking of mothers.

"Katsuki, where the fuck are you?" Katsuki's mother's voice was at that familiar low pitch where shit was about to get real. "Don't pretend you're in danger because I'm your damn mother and I know you better than anyone."

Katsuki pinched the bridge of his nose as he listened to his mum's endless yapping on the other end. He lost track of time because teasing Ochaco was just too fun. She was more important than a stupid photoshoot anyway. "Look, it's not like you're doing me a favour. I'm the one taking the time out of my god damn day to help you with your stupid fucking job so I don't need to hear this shit!"

"Shut the fuck up, dumb brat!" Katsuki pulled the phone away from his ear and ignored the harpy screeching. "You're supposed to be here right now and you better have a good fucking reason not to show!"

Katsuki numbed the microphone against his chest as he mouthed to Ochaco, "Get ready."

Ochaco nodded her head soundlessly, horrified by the vitriolic slurs spilling out of his phone speakers. She tore his shirt over her head and handed it to him. Before she reached the door, she turned around and gave him thumbs up, "Good luck, Bakugo."

Now that Ochaco knew the kind of demonic creature he was up against, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

"Ma," Katsuki said, sandwiching the phone between his ear and shoulder as he got the keys from the kitchen table. "Listen – I'm bringing a girl with me."

"Really?" The demonic howling turned sweet and angelic at the mention of the word 'girl'. "You got a girlfriend, Katsuki? Why didn't you say so?"

"She isn't my fucking girlfriend, damn it!" Katsuki rubbed away the oncoming headache. "She's just a friend - who happens to be a girl."

"You need to learn some fucking manners, boy." His mother warned him, her shitty mood back full force. "I hope she didn't hear you talk about her like that, dickhead. Anyway, I'd love to meet her. Your father is here too."

"Thank god." Katsuki's father was the only sane person he knew. "Put him on."

There was the usual rustle as Katsuki waited, imagining the walk his mother took across each set between groups of people getting everything perfect for one lousy page in a magazine. She was lucky he had this date marked on the calendar on his phone, otherwise he wouldn't have offered to help in the first place.

"Katsuki?"

"Dad – my bad for running late. I'm bringing a girl with me. Can you just control mum so she doesn't act insane for a couple of hours?" Katsuki always spoke evenly when it came to his dad. "I don't want to deal with the usual freak show."

"Is it serious?"

Katsuki's mind went blank.

How could he explain the mixture of apprehension and indecision that made him hesitate so much?

Ochaco opened the bedroom door and smiled at him as she whispered, "What do you think?"

She wore a pretty floral dress, a romantic, modern take on a vintage design. The dress came in at her waist and accentuated her fine hourglass physique, drifting just above her knees with a classy and conservative impression. The black stockings that covered her legs were a little overkill on the conservative meter though. Her heels clicked against the wooden floorboards as she came closer, a pair of pink pumps that added to her height - but she was still his little shorty.

Katsuki now understood why in movies they blasted music every time a beautiful woman walked into a room, because that is exactly how he felt when he saw her. "Yeah – it is, dad."

He could hear his dad choke up on the other end and he begrudgingly spared some attention to his phone instead of the stunning woman in front of him. Katsuki's father was a sensitive guy and always made him feel as though he was the greatest son alive.

The thought of disappointing his father was the driving force to his success as a kid and even now, there were remnants of that as an adult. He had to prove himself no matter what, because what if he let his dad down?

Mum on the other hand was a chaotic monster and he made it his mission to piss her off as much as possible. "Don't say a fucking word to mum. This is between you and me, dad."

"If you say so." His dad laughed, too overjoyed to reprimand him for language.

Katsuki hung up the phone, letting it slip from his ear as his hand fell down to rest at his side. Ochaco was just about bursting with energy and he felt as though if he even reached for her he would be zapped with static. "How do I look?"

"You clean up pretty well, but you still look like a dog."

Ochaco pretended to roll up her sleeves, jabbing at his shoulder playfully – and painfully. The impact really fucking hurt and he resisted rubbing the pain away. What bothered him more was the fear that she could see right through him, past the thorns, to the warm, immature kid he was inside. The kid that adored her more than anything else and thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world.

"Thanks for the compliment, even though it was kind of mean and hurt my heart a bit." Ochaco seemed a little disappointed. "It was hard figuring out how to do normal everyday makeup without you know – the glitter and overexaggerated eyeliner."

And yet, she reduced herself to be nothing but a stripper.

Hesitantly, Katsuki wrapped his arms over her shoulders and rested his chin on her head. Ochaco froze with shock, but eventually she relaxed and touched his arms gingerly. He took a moment to think about how fucking soft the pads of her fingers were and how much he wanted to press them like the paw of a cat. "Lose the stockings and you're golden."

They stayed like that for a while in comfortable intimacy and the longer they stood, the more Katsuki wondered how he could ever possibly let her go.

"Hey Bakugo," Ochaco brushed the hairs on his arms and smiled. "Did you get hit on the head while I was gone?"

Katsuki was too flustered to think of a comeback so he handled it the way he handled everything else he didn't know how to deal with – with brute strength. He progressively squeezed tighter until she whacked his arm twice, signalling she had given in.

Maybe this was the only time he could hold her like that. Once she had got her train wreck of a life together and he built her support system up again, they would probably go their separate ways as though they didn't even know each other.

"If we're any later than we are now, that evil fucking lizard draped in human skin is going to destroy the city." Katsuki needed to not be alone with Ochaco anymore. "C'mon."

Katsuki was going to distance himself before he complicated her life further with his bullshit.

"Wait! Can you hold my hand?" Ochaco smiled sheepishly, "I'm not used to walking in high heels."

Katsuki's first inclination was pointing out the inconsistency of a stripper not knowing how to walk in heels, when he realised exactly what she was doing.

"You fuckin' liar." Katsuki laughed and went along with it, her smile so big and stupid that he couldn't say no even if he tried.

When they got in the car, Katsuki's mind almost overloaded as he waited for her to put on her seatbelt. The first time he busted up a drug den in full SWAT gear, his partner called his wife to say goodbye and vomited from the stress. At the time, Katsuki didn't get how anyone could have anxiety that severe – it wasn't that big a deal. Now, he was taking a girl to meet his parents and wanted nothing more than to spew his guts out, call Kirishima and say his goodbyes.

Still, if he was going to bring any girl around his parents, he wanted it to be her.

The radio switched on as the car started and the music blasted throughout the speakers. The sound almost made his head shoot through the fucking roof.

" _I'm gunna keep on lovin' you! Cause it's the only thing I want to do! I don't want to sleep, I just want to keep on lovin' you!"_

Stupid psychic radio.

Ochaco laughed and squeezed his thigh reassuringly, "Are you nervous?"

"No, I'm not fucking nervous." Katsuki scoffed, "Yeah, like I'd be scared of bringing a girl to meet my parents – whatever."

"Really? I think if I brought anyone to meet my parents I would be so scared I'd pee my pants a bit." Ochaco's laughter always sounded like music and eased his nerves like a glass of bourbon never could.

"You get scared of pixels on a screen and I'm made of stronger stuff, baby."

Ochaco was the strongest girl he'd ever known and ghost movies had him crying. At least you could shoot a zombie in the head and Katsuki could easily overpower a psychopath serial killer – how do you fight something that is already dead with no physical form? The thought was absolutely terrifying.

"I'm secure enough to be open about my fears, which I'm pretty sure is the first step to overcoming them." Ochaco smiled up at him as she reached down and pulled her heels off. "You should try it sometime."

Ochaco was way too good at banter.

Katsuki considered his own way of shit talking as blasting people – quick, sound, widely arrayed insults that did area damage with offensive words and superficial taunts. Ochaco put a lot more thought into it – it was as though she went stone by stone until she had enough ammunition to come down at him like a meteor-shower. She was a one hit K-O kind of girl, the kind that cut deep without being poisonous or manipulative.

He devised a clever comeback but froze as he glanced at her quickly before focusing back on the road. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"You said to lose the stockings." Ochaco stated matter-of-factly.

She reached under her dress and shimmied out of her stockings, creamy thighs on full display if only he didn't have to focus on the road. Katsuki debated whether to watch and potentially crash the car into that oncoming truck he was subconsciously veering into as he glanced at her - or focus on the road. The ridiculousness of it all had him laughing maniacally.

"You're really something, you know that?" Katsuki said, smiling.

"Of course, I know that."

…

Meeting the parents went better than expected.

Katsuki didn't know if it was a mother's intuition or just a woman bonding thing that he would never understand, but his mother took one look at Ochaco and decidedly loved her.

His father was no different either, asking her if she was hungry or thirsty or how she liked her coffee – the weird part being Ochaco did the same for him. She brought him water and they both awkwardly floundered over each other in some weird considerate cycle of fulfilling each other's needs.

More than anything, it made Katsuki's heart soften to see his father get waited on for once.

The photoshoot was for a new line of suits designed for men that weren't the usual politician or well-groomed white-collar type. They were for the bigger builds – the football players and bigger guys that were wide in the shoulders and thin in the waist.

One of Katsuki's biggest problems when buying a dress shirt was they were always either too narrow in the arms or too big around the chest – this was a big problem when he had to deal with black tie events. He brought this up casually to his mother and unintentionally got himself wrapped up in another fashion frenzy.

Now here he was, trying on suits and posing for the camera like he gave a shit. He had a beautiful model at his side that was tall and elegant, but he was sure she would blow away at the slightest wind and he was afraid to touch her in case she snapped in half. Katsuki was also _almost_ sure he'd fucked her before, but at the time he was too drunk at the time, so he mentally emphasised the word 'almost'.

She whispered in his ear, probably something seductive so that she could sink her claws into him and try to get more work with his stupid designer parent combo. Instead of hearing a word of it, he looked over at Ochaco. She looked unhappy – all she did the entire time was hang out with his parents and watch from the sidelines.

Now his mother was talking to Ochaco and leading her off somewhere. This was bad news. Katsuki shook the model off him the second the photographer took a break to look over the pictures. "Look, I'm not fucking interested, okay?"

"Is that your girlfriend with you?" The girl was the kind that he loved to be seen with, but not someone he'd want to hang around afterwards. "She looks a bit fat, don't you think?"

"What the fuck did you just say?" Katsuki turned to glare at the woman – Tiffany or Brittany, whatever her name was. "Her eyebrows kind of make her look like one of those Japanese dogs and when she punches, she hits like a truck and I don't know what the fuck goes on in that head of hers most of the time. You can have your pick of the things I just mentioned because I give her shit about that every fucking day and she takes it like a champ. You know, she is probably the only girl I've ever met to have the resolve to call me a fuck-face. Not that you would say anything to her personally, because you don't have the fucking guts, do you?"

Katsuki didn't know why he couldn't restrain himself. Maybe he had been holding in all his frustration and endearment over Ochaco these last couple of days and hadn't found an appropriate way to vent it out without verbally vomiting the aggravation. Actually, it had been so long since he'd had a session with the punching bag that maybe this was a weird side effect.

Without a word of warning, the model started crying hysterically like he was the one calling _her_ a dog faced, gorilla strength, air-headed sweetheart with the emotional fortitude of a saint. People were staring at him like he'd just abused her - as though he gave a shit, she just gave him a topic of conversation and he went with the flow.

The lady was yelling at him now but all he could focus on was the makeup melting off her face as she went on about how rude he was and why he didn't call her back at all and how he was obviously trying to upset her by bringing a girl around when they finally had the opportunity to talk in person. Then she slapped him – but it was nothing in comparison to Ochaco's punch that still fucking made his arm throb hours after the initial impact.

As the model stormed out, he turned around to see his mother glaring daggers into his back. Still, she gave him that knowing smile as though she knew him better than he knew himself. "It's a good thing I got Ochaco in there trying the next dress – bless her heart. What did Clarissa say to set you off, hun?"

Well, at least Katsuki came close to remembering her name – sort of.

"She said that Uraraka looked fat and I just went on this epic fucking rant – you should have seen it, ma – talkin' about how Uraraka is a lot of things, but she's not fat." Katsuki described, animated with a big grin stretched across his face. He couldn't remember talking to his mum with such excitement since watching All Might on the T.V. as a kid. "Then that chick ran away crying for some reason – probably stress. You've been working these girls too fucking hard, ma."

"Firstly, fuck you – I never work my models too hard I am a very kind and compassionate boss, all things considered." Katsuki's mother slapped him across the back of the head, the force rattling his brain. "Secondly, I heard every fucking word and from how damn loud you are, so did everyone else. You're lucky I'm your mother and can see through your bullshit, because if I didn't know you so well, I would think you were a really big fucking asshole."

"Thank you, I appreciate the compliment." Katsuki grinned, his smile melting his mother's heart like butter.

"Smart ass." Katsuki's mother wrapped her arms around him, and he stood there, shocked. "I love you, Katsuki."

They stayed that way for a while and Katsuki cleared his throat, his mother breaking away and wiping away her eyes. He didn't understand why everyone got so emotional around him now, as though he'd come back from the dead or something. Was he really that different before Ochaco showed up in his life? If anything, he thought he was nicer back then.

"Now hurry up and go get changed, we're not running on your time, dumbass." Katsuki's mother pushed him away, before he could even come close to getting to the bottom of the weird emotional shift everyone seemed to take with him lately.

Katsuki sauntered into the changing room and got ready. The hair dresser tried their best to tame his hair for the next shot – a wedding scene. He inherited his hair from his mother – an incredibly thick, tempestuous mass of hair that flicked wildly wherever it pleased. As the hairdresser stood, baffled at what to do with it, Katsuki's mind drifted away.

The wedding shot was the last one of the day and he wondered where the time had gone. He had this weird habit where whenever things were too boring or didn't stand to achieve anything he cared about, he went entirely on auto pilot and barely paid any attention.

He focused at school, even during fits of explosive rage because he needed good grades to be a cop. Training was truly when he did the hard yards – life took a back seat for that because he needed to be in peak physical and mental condition. Now that he was a cop, all he really needed to focus on was work, right?

Ochaco's face popped up behind his reflection in the mirror, her hair pinned up with strands framing her face. Her smile was vibrant and she suited the blushing bride role to a T. Suddenly he felt the pull of being brought back to the present as her fingers tugged his hair.

"With Bakugo's hair, you've got to push it up like this before you can get it to slick back. Think of the old-school yakuza movies." Ochaco explained, brushing his hair back and forth with her fingers. "Just cover it in wax, okay?"

"We're doing a wedding shoot, not high school prom." The hairdresser argued. "It would look like some sort of bad joke."

"Okay, I respect your _wrong_ opinion." Ochaco crossed her arms, setting her fiery gaze on his in the mirror. "What's your verdict?"

"Did you decide on your hair?" Katsuki was itching for a fight and here she was, with her gloves up. "Looks more like someone with taste shanghaied you into it."

"No, personally I wanted that beehive wig but she was really nice when she said no, so it wasn't like I could insist on it even though I wanted it." Ochaco deflected, preparing for a dive hit. "But you can admit that it would look really cool if you had hair like Elvis and I had the beehive style? Remember when the King got married? We could have a throwback to the sixties!"

She looked damn good in the dress and Katsuki's heart threatened to spill from his chest, much like her breasts did every time she leaned forward. He was just about ready to tear her a new one, but there was no doubt in his mind that she was here because she was nervous and wanted to clear the tension before she got in front of a camera.

"Listen toots," Katsuki had accent at the ready, just to make her smile. "You're lookin' real nice all dolled up like that and I'd hate to keep a pretty broad like you waitin',"

Katsuki signalled for the hairdresser to go get his mother. His mother did her own hair every morning and she'd have no problems doing his. For now, he just wanted to spend some alone time with Ochaco before she freaked out.

When they were alone, Ochaco deflated and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, careful not to press her face against the clothes. She looked sweet in make-up and the professionals maintained a flawless finish that looked more natural than obvious.

"Bakugo you are so dumb," Ochaco murmured, giggling softly. "That accent is like, so fifties."

"Shuddap."

"Was that girl back there your girlfriend? The model, I mean." Ochaco had an uneasy smile on her face and his knee jerk reaction was to ask what she did wrong. "We talked about you right before she left."

"Thought I already told you I'm not really the kind of guy that has girlfriends." Katsuki hoped that Ochaco didn't ruin his street cred. Once she dropped out of his life again, he was going to need to do some serious rebounding. "Out with it then."

"Well – she started talking bad about you and I just jumped on the opportunity, you know?" Ochaco looked away, focusing on anything else but him.

She definitely said something incriminating.

"Out with it."

"I said that you are kind of like an angry dog that bites people and barks all the time and that you don't play fair when we fight and sometimes when you go in a daze, your face gets progressively angrier and sometimes I wonder if you're going to have a stroke and stay like that forever." Ochaco chuckled nervously. "I like all those things about you though."

As she spoke, Katsuki glared at her appearance in the mirror and flipped her off. Really, it wasn't anything he didn't know already nor was it anything he drastically needed to change to sleep with women. It wasn't like they went after him because he had a stellar personality anyways. Still, he felt relieved that they handled the situation in identical ways.

"Katsuki aren't you old enough to do your own fucking hair?" His mother came in and quickly brushed his hair up and forward, like always. "Now get your ass out there and look happy for once."

They stood out on the set together and his mother made things easy by playing some classical music in the speakers, "Just dance normally and smile, you don't need to worry about posing."

One of the genius ideas a shrink had when Katsuki was younger was to learn ballroom dancing with his mother. They said it was for bonding purposes and every week his mother would take him to classes. The classes had a competitive element, and naturally he and his mother made it their life's work to dominate first place each and every time.

A completely unrelated bonus to the whole ordeal was Katsuki was pretty fucking good at dancing.

Katsuki took charge, pulling Ochaco close as he led her with ease and twirled her around. The shocked look on Ochaco's face as she realised he was really damn good at something she didn't expect was enough to fuel his confidence – or more accurately, arrogance – for his entire lifespan.

"I didn't know you could dance." Ochaco smiled up at him, trusting enough to stop staring at their feet. "Bakugo, you're full of surprises."

"You can kiss my ass later, hold on tight. I'm going to dip you." Katsuki brought her down slowly and she swayed back with ease, a complete natural when it came to making her body look as fucking sexy as possible. "There are a lot of things you don't know about me, baby."

Ochaco started shaking as she tried to hold back laughter, but when he lifted his brows her façade broke apart and she giggled so hard she snorted. When she smiled like that, her whole face seemed to light up with happiness. Her cheeks reddened, her eyes seemed to shimmer and even her eyebrows lifted as she laughed and grinned up at him while he danced her around the set.

"You are out of your gourd, my dude." Ochaco whispered in his ear, faux lovingly as they laughed over the material they were giving the photographer.

"Is that how you talk dirty?" Katsuki lifted her up and spun her around in his arms slowly. "Forget stripping – you should get a job at an adult hotline."

Their moment was gone when they realised that the music had long since stopped and automatically they turned to the onlooking crowd. His parents sat together on a fold-out chair, hand in hand as they watched. Dad wiped away a few stray tears on his sleeve as he lifted his glasses.

"Give her a kiss, asshole!" His mother heckled and started clapping. "Kiss her! Kiss her!"

"Fuck you!" Katsuki laughed it off and was ready to walk off and call it a day, but Ochaco gripped his hand tightly.

"You think I'm the kind of girl who would just let go of a chance like this?"

Ochaco gripped his tie and pulled him down, caressing his stubble with her hand before kissing him sweetly. Her lips were soft and yielding and she melted like putty in his arms, as he pulled her tight against him and took charge. It was as though the floodgates broke and all of the lust and sexual frustration gave way into something smouldering and heated that Katsuki couldn't control.

Ochaco had him gasping for air, but reeled him back in as her teeth playfully nibbled on his bottom lip. Girls always wanted to tame him and make him the nice guy that they brought home to their families. Not Ochaco, she was just as wild and unbroken as he was.

Katsuki lifted her up and she moaned as his tongue brushed experimentally against hers. The sounds sparked a visceral reaction and he wanted to know exactly what drove her crazy and could think of nothing else until he memorised each and every erotic sound she could make with her mouth. But then he realised that they were in a crowded studio with his parents watching and he had to latch onto a sober thought to calm down.

He thought about civil unrest and starving children without a clean water supply. Every late-night charity ad ran through his head. When that didn't work, his mind drifted to the catchy commercials with a tune to memorise a phone number. Soon his memory reached the time that they were two dorky kids at odds with each other in high-school, and the way she would smile each time he glared at her.

Somehow that crazy amalgamation of things running through his head made him come to the ultimate conclusion – Katsuki loved her.

He always had.

…..

 **I hope you liked the chapter guys, it was an absolute pleasure to write and I had a lot of fun with how goofy and dorky they are with each other.**

 **Now that it's the end of the month, tell me what you think!**

 **Should I do big chapters like this and do weekly updates each Friday/Saturday, or should I go with something else? Tell me in a review!**


	11. Chapter 11 - Smother Me

**Red Tape: Chapter 11**

 **Hey guys! Just as a quick PSA: I'm increasing the rating to M.**

 **I was honestly supposed to do this ages ago, but I totally forgot. Anyway, hate to spoil but I'm warning you that there is smut in this chapter so if you don't like this kind of thing, beware.**

…..

The waking up cliché literature teachers vehemently tell you not to do was simply unavoidable when you woke up next to Ochaco. Katsuki cracked one eye open and was already on the receiving end of the brunt of her affection.

"Have you been staring at me all fucking night?" Katsuki grumbled against the pillow.

"Shhhh…." Ochaco ran her hand over his face and whispered, "I just wish I could look at your sleeping face forever."

Katsuki launched out of bed so fast his head started spinning. He didn't get how this love thing worked, but if it included her murdering him and wearing his skin or something, he wanted out. "Whaddaya want for breakfast?"

"Pancakes!"

Pancakes was easy although it wasn't what he'd usually pick for breakfast. Katsuki was a carnivore at heart and he loved something he could sink his teeth into. Nothing beat bacon bits, bacon strips, bacon rashers – oh, and did he mention bacon?

He put the bacon down and for once, tried to be somewhat considerate. Just for today he would settle for pancakes because Ochaco had been a good sport. In fact, he was going to go all out and add some whipped cream on top and strawberries. Maybe even melt some chocolate as a decadent finish.

Like everything in life, Katsuki did not settle for second best. He made the batter from scratch and set to work in the kitchen, taking the time to think about everything and anything while he listened to Ochaco humming in the bedroom.

The apartment felt different when she was around, as if she breathed life into every place she touched. Katsuki never realised how enveloping the loneliness was when he was in complete solitude. Like the quiet nights where he did not bother to turn the light on and sat, drinking whiskey in the dark after a long day at work. The mornings when all he could hear as he left was the swing of the door as he opened and shut it.

Ochaco sang like a deaf turkey in its death throes as she skipped over and planted her sweet ass on the stool. It made his heart ache to know how much he took her for granted. From the second she stepped into his life, she was this awkward, perky teenager who smiled at him from across the room when everyone else was afraid to make eye contact. He wished he wasn't so fucking stupid back then, otherwise he would have loved her with every ounce of his being from that moment on.

Impulsively, Katsuki planted his palm on the bench and kissed her hard on the lips. Ochaco leaned into his touch as though they were made as two pieces of a whole, brought together for the moment in completeness.

"What was that for?"

Ochaco had a habit of making this breathy noise when you kissed her with just the right amount of tender loving care, soft like a sigh and nothing like anything he'd ever heard before.

"It's the best fucking way to shut you up." Katsuki turned back to the pancakes and smiled, so that she couldn't see it. "Consider it payment for all the work I put into this diabetic nightmare."

They sat in comfortable silence while he towered each pancake between whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Ochaco watched him with her cheek resting on her palm and once again, they managed to reach a resonance with each other as they settled into mundane life.

"Bakugo, I just remembered a joke you might like." Ochaco spoke eagerly and he took a minute to rest against the bench and listen as he sipped some coffee. "Why did Mickey divorce Minnie Mouse?"

"Dunno, that castle would be a pretty sweet divorce settlement." Katsuki shrugged, turning back to the pancakes. He debated using the sifter to dust the fluffy tower of babel with confectioner's sugar but it was already enough of a mess to clean up.

"…You're not wrong, but that's beside the point." Ochaco frowned. "Do you just not know how jokes work? You're supposed to ask why, dummy."

Katsuki rolled the plate in front of Ochaco and poured chocolate over the sickly-sweet mess as he humoured her, "Why did Mickey divorce Minnie Mouse?"

To punish him for ruining her fun, she took a moment to build suspense as she cut herself up a layered slice of pancake and whipped cream and squealed about how soft it was. The reaction was enough to make the whole mess he made worth it.

"Because she was fucking Goofy."

Katsuki sprayed coffee all over Ochaco's face. She sat, stunned and silent with knife and fork still resting in each hand. It was like visiting the bodies covered in ash at the ruins of Pompeii after the volcanic eruption - lifelike, expressive and frozen in shock moments before death. She blinked, her eyes as dark as the bitter coffee that dripped from her face and hair and he almost felt bad – almost.

The joke was mediocre but the delivery was so unexpected and fantastic that it caught him off guard. Maybe it was because he'd never really heard her swear before – at least not sober – and she said it in such a casual way that it created the perfect storm and he couldn't stop fucking laughing.

"I love you, Bakugo."

That shut him up.

"You're fucking with me, right?"

"No, I'm not." Ochaco smiled dejectedly, hiding back the hurt as best she could. "I know that there is something there between us but I don't know why you won't admit it. Is it because I'm a stripper?"

"Fuck no!" Her being a stripper was the least of his worries. Sure, a part of it bothered him and made him annoyed that other people had seen her body. Mostly he didn't think about it at all because the thought just made him so damn _angry_. It was best to just ignore it forever and cover his ears every time she brought it up or reminded him of that fact. "Okay, I hate the fact that you were a stripper. It fucking gets to me."

Ochaco stepped cautiously towards him and they played a game of cat and mouse. Traditionally he would have been the predator and she, the prey. Now they went through a role reversal and he was the one backing away from her clutches as she chased him down.

Katsuki made it out of the kitchen which was a small victory on his part because it was the only place she could really corner him, yet Ochaco never once let him relish his success. Tackling him over the couch, his head hit the coffee table and his legs splayed out over the back cushions as he tried to right himself.

She was upon him in an instant, kneeling on the carpet as she gripped his face in her hands and kissed him sweetly on the lips. The blood rushed to his head and he groaned, savouring the sweetness. Ochaco was inexperienced with kissing, especially when upside down but the clumsiness was so endearing that it felt more charming than anything else.

When Katsuki reached up to touch her face, she was still sticky with coffee.

"You're so gross. Go take a shower." Katsuki said grinning, as she broke away for air and nuzzled the tip of her nose against his.

"Come with me."

"That's a fucking terrible idea." He turned away, "Do you even understand what you're asking, shit-for-brains?"

Ochaco held on tight and smiled, "Kacchan, it's either I'm a stripper and I'm too worldly for you to want to be with romantically or I'm a kid that's too naïve and innocent to handle sexuality. You have to pick one – I can't be both."

That wasn't what Katsuki thought at all and he resented the fact that she got that impression from him in the first place.

"Fine."

When Ochaco led him into the bathroom, she held his hand so tightly that the death-grip virtually hid the tremor of her palms. The blood stagnated in his hand to the point the ends of his fingers were almost purple as she constricted them. They faced each other with determination and it felt more like a duel than a shower together.

Katsuki took the opportunity to pry himself out of her grip and reached for the corners of his shirt, but her hands stopped him.

"Let me do it." Ochaco murmured, her expression brave but her voice shaking.

She lifted the fabric over Katsuki's head with difficulty, given how much he towered over her in height. The awkwardness made her laugh and it was enough to break the tension, even if it was only a little bit.

Now it was his turn and he made sure to lead with confidence, just like when they danced together at the photoshoot. He brushed his fingertips against Ochaco's hips as he drew the shirt over skin and pulled it up her shoulders. She had a big head and he laughed as her hair fluffed up, disarrayed and framing her face.

Half-naked and vulnerable, instead of fleeing out the door, Ochaco rushed into his arms and shielded her body from his gaze by pressing into his chest, skin to skin. For a moment Katsuki could do nothing but hold her, as though the connection of their body heat could somehow put her nerves at ease.

The pause did nothing but somehow make him more uncomfortable, and instead of being the seasoned traveller that had his share of exotic, beautiful and confident women, he was stuck feeling embarrassed and afraid of the intimacy they shared together. It was as though her virginity had rubbed off on him like a contagious virus and he wasn't quite sure what to do.

No, when Neil Armstrong was halfway to the moon he did not turn around and run back to earth. The Apollo 11 was on a clear trajectory and at this moment so was Katsuki. Unwavering, he released the clasp and moved his hands down her shoulders as the flimsy fabric fell.

"Are you sure about this?"

Katsuki breathed a shaky sigh.

There was nothing in the world he had ever wanted more than this. If he had to pick between the lifetime of successes until this point and having her, he would give up everything he worked towards a thousand times over. Knowing his own overwhelming tenacity, he couldn't ever possibly let her go ever again now that he had a taste of what their life could be together. All she had to do was say-

"Yes."

Katsuki drew her head back and kissed her roughly, tasting the chocolate and cream from breakfast with his tongue. He moved his kisses down to her neck and devoured her jugular like she was his last meal on earth. Ochaco moaned and ran her hands through his hair, tugging with urgency every time he found a goldmine of nerves that sent her reeling with ecstasy.

They broke away as Katsuki reached her hips and she breathed nervously as he looked up at her. Smiling slowly, Ochaco caressed the stubble on his jaw as she ran her hands across his face. She looked down at him with so much happiness and anticipation that he understood why people stayed together for the rest of their lives. If she looked at him like that forever, he would be by her side even when she was old and busted.

They matched their movements by the beat of their hearts as he glided his fingers underneath the band of her panties and she stepped out of the fabric gingerly. She covered her cheeks with her hands and looked away as he etched her body into his mind like a pencil sketching roughly against a canvas. Maybe it was from the time she spent stripping, but every single blade of hair was waxed clean and her skin was as smooth and milky as her thighs.

The exhilaration was intense as Ochaco wrapped her arms around his waist and held on tightly, her entire body quivering. He couldn't help but shake as well, as they stood, shaking in each other's arms. Maybe because they had known each other since they were teenagers, doing something like this became a herculean task and it was best not to take the road less travelled.

Still, Katsuki could not deny that the feeling of her body pressed against his made him fall so deeply in love that there would be no profounder feeling of regret in his life than to let her go. There was something painful and frustrating about loving someone that much, as though you want to express yourself so badly but nothing you can say or do would ever really scratch the surface.

"Say something to make this easier." Ochaco hummed against his chest. "Just whatever pops up in your head..."

"This is way fucking better than the communal showers at work."

Ochaco giggled, a small rumble at first until she looked up into his eyes and erupted with laughter. "You know, Tsuyu told me something interesting about when she first started dating Deku."

"Are you seriously going to bring up other people when you're naked and hugging me?"

She ignored him and continued with her story, as though he wasn't shrinking back just from the mere mention of Deku, "She said that there was a twenty-four-hour grace period after she made the first move to make sure Deku realised that she was his now, and that they weren't going to go back to being friends."

"What's this got to do with anything?" Katsuki sighed, rubbing his forehead as he felt the moment passing. "Other than confirming that Deku is as much of a pussy as I thought he was."

"You have no right to talk – I've been making all the moves since I showed up at your door and all you've been doing is running away scared." Ochaco coaxed him forward as she stepped into the shower and turned the hot water on. "I just thought I needed to do something drastic and to hear that you've already had showers with people in a platonic way kind of ruins it."

"Did you just fucking say I've been running scared?" Katsuki tore off his boxers and hopped in as she squealed playfully. "Baby, I'll have you screaming in a second."

The tension cleared like fog after sunshine as they played together in the shower. He styled her hair with foam to give her a sick mohawk and she meticulously shaped a mermaid bikini on his chest. All of the awkwardness seemed to die away and it was as though they grew so used to each other that it didn't matter that he was as hard as a rock or that her face gave away how even the slightest touch drove her insane.

It was funny how compassionate and affectionate you became when naked together, as though the exposure was so liberating that all decorum peeled away with your clothes.

Ochaco laughed and squealed as he lifted her up and she wrapped her arms and legs frantically around him as though if her feet hit the floor she would burn in lava. Their lips met on instinct and he groaned as she ran her hands over his shoulders and kissed him lazily. The steam made them drunk and sluggish as every innocent and playful urge gave way to something more carnal. Still, there was something not quite right and the niggling doubt made Katsuki hesitate.

"What's wrong?" Katsuki liked to think that he was comfortable asking that, but those two words weren't often used consecutively when he spoke.

It was strange to watch Ochaco's face crumple between extreme emotions of happiness and sadness as her face contorted and her eyebrows twitched, Katsuki was torn between fascinated on which side would win and concerned over how she could feel sad at all in the first place. He was on cloud-nine right now.

"I have never ever regretted being a stripper. No matter how people treated me, it never bothered me because I was doing it for my parents so that they could have some money come in and maybe one day I could take them on a holiday to Hawaii." Ochaco choked out, "But the thought of only ever being nothing but a stripper to you makes me wish I'd never done it in the first place. I'm sorry I came into your life, I'm sorry I thought we could be anything more than this… I'm sorry for everything, Kacchan."

Her feet hit the tiles and Katsuki gripped her hands and tore them away from her face as he made her look at him. "Never fucking apologise for who you are and what you've done. Don't apologise to me, don't apologise to anybody. Especially not to yourself."

"But-"

Katsuki kissed down her chest and ran his tongue over her budding nipple, rolling his thumb teasingly over the other. Ochaco gasped, her train of thought broken under the spell of arousal that consumed her as he explored her body.

"I love you, Kacchan." Ochaco moaned as he traced her ribcage with his hand, his ministrations became more rough and urgent as her voice carried out over the loud pour of the shower. "I love you so much!"

Saying those three words was too hard for him to manage, even under the current circumstances. It wasn't that he didn't feel that way, it was more that if he said those words he didn't want them misconstrued as a sudden impulse in a moment of passion. Katsuki wanted to express himself in earnest when the time was right, so the only thing he could do right now was show her his feelings through actions, not words.

Katsuki trailed down her stomach until he reached her hips, pausing to caress the grooves with his thumbs before he kissed the delicate folds between her thighs. Gauging her reaction, he ran his tongue experimentally along her slit and Ochaco shivered, leaning back against the tiled walls. She ran her nails through his hair and held onto him for dear life, her face candidly expressing every hint of desire that resonated within her at every touch.

Katsuki delivered on his promise to make her scream as he tasted and pleased her, her whimpers a road map on how to make her reach ecstasy. She was so honest with her feelings that he could tell the exact moment he brought her to the edge of oblivion and how to slow down and reign her back in so that they could enjoy the moment for just a little bit longer. His eagerness to delay her orgasm seemed to aggravate Ochaco, and she vented her frustrations by crying out his name and tearing at his hair, "Kacchan, please!"

The stupid name he'd held since he was a child took on new meaning when Ochaco screamed it in bliss. Her knees buckled as her body wracked under wave upon wave of ecstasy and she sunk to the ground, spent and tranquil.

"Told you I'd make you fucking scream." Katsuki grinned and wanted more than anything to boast about his prowess and maybe have her _stroke_ his ego, but Ochaco simply laid on the floor, a serene smile on her face and her eyes closed. "Ochaco?"

He tapped her cheek softly and her head hung to the side, no response.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me."

Lifting up deadweight was harder than Katsuki expected as he tried to dry Ochaco off without having her slip and smash her head against the floor. He lifted weights heavier than an average person and generally wouldn't break a sweat picking up someone as small as Ochaco, but with her limbs and head hanging limp, it was near impossible.

Katsuki threw Ochaco over his shoulder and silently thanked the training instructors that taught him protocol on moving an unconscious person. He flipped her down on the bed and dried her off as best he could, slipping one of his shirts over her shoulders so that she was somewhat decent.

He sat at the edge of the bed and scrolled through his contacts, but he didn't have to look far. The dial tone reverberated through the speakers twice before Katsuki heard the tell-tale click and the soft, non-offensive, boyish voice on the other end, "Hello, Kacchan?"

"Make yourself free fuck-face, I'm picking you up in an hour."

Ochaco had shown him her resolve and now it was Katsuki's turn to prove his.

….

 **Just so I don't forget – thank you to the two people who offered me suggestions! If you're reading this, could you give me a pen name to credit you with when that part comes up? I just want to show my appreciation because I didn't think of that and that's a damn good idea.**

 **Oh, and if you guys have any plot point suggestions hit me up! I wouldn't be able to do a project this big without you guys reading and offering me input. I honestly can't believe how much this fic has blown up. Thank you!**

 **If you want to hit me with predictions, I seriously love and welcome them as well!**


	12. Chapter 12 - Bromance

**Chapter 12 - Bromance**

 **Katsuki and Deku chapter? Katsuki and Deku chapter.**

 **Also, on a personal note – sorry for the long hiatus. Sorry if this is a bit much, but I like to keep everything going on with me totally transparent so that you don't assume the worst. The reason I've been gone so long is because my grandma has been sick. She passed away today in the morning. To make matters worse, on Wednesday a man and a woman broke into one of my houses and I was at home at the time and confronted them (bad move). The police are involved, it was really fucking traumatic and they made off with thousands of dollars' worth of stuff but everything is fine.**

 **It's been a tough month.**

 **Thanks for sticking with me guys and I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

…

Katsuki waited in front of Deku's house with his phone wedged in his hand, gripping the wheel with the other as his car idled in neutral. He was in a good mood because he felt like he really climbed a wall of sorts with Ochaco.

Like everything else he put his mind to, it was an overwhelming success.

Listening to the dial tone, he couldn't help but grin as though buffed by the grace of victory. He was in such a good mood he wanted to partake in his favourite past time – bullying the fuck out of Deku.

"Kacchan?"

"Get in the fucking car!" Katsuki yelled into the microphone.

There was silence. Then the brief flutter of curtains as Deku peered outside, looking straight at him with perplexity, like when an antelope spies a crocodile in the water, hoping with optimism that maybe it's a log. The fabric stilled and Katsuki could hear faint noise in the background – a kid's song teaching numbers or the alphabet on the television and the soft patter of feet as Deku laid the phone against the floor to tie his shoes.

The door whined as it swung open and Katsuki hung up, watching Deku walk from his house. Reaching over, he opened the car door and let Deku in, but good prey never made it easy. Deku leaned forward with his hands safely clutching the roof of the car, afraid someone would come from behind and push him inside, as though they were doing a creative spin of 'Taken', where the kids have to find their kidnapped father.

They stared at each other for a moment, waiting to see who yielded first. After doing this hundreds of times, it was obvious what the result would be, "Aren't you going to come inside to say hello to my family first?"

"How many fucking times do I have to say get in the fucking car, fuck-face?!" Katsuki growled, revving the engine for emphasis.

"A-Alright!" Deku scrambled into the car, shutting the door and fumbling with his seat belt. "I'm in the car now. Happy?"

Katsuki didn't respond, but instead slowly unfolded his aviators and press them up the bridge of his nose. When he was right and ready, he locked every door in the car except his own. He had to give Deku the illusion of a worst-case scenario happening.

Slamming his foot down, the engine roared and brought the entire neighbourhood outside as they peered at the car with curiosity and agitation. Launching out from the curb, the tires screamed with the foul smell of burning rubber and smoke.

He made sure to circle the block a couple of times and take as many sharp turns as possible as he twisted through the suburbs. Having not had breakfast and being the one to take the wheel, he didn't feel queasy. Deku however was about ready to paint his interior with the contents of his stomach. Laughing, Katsuki savoured his efforts, "How you doing there, fucker?"

Deku sat, curled up and frozen with his arm wrapped around his stomach and the other clamped over his mouth as he stared doggedly at his shoes. Katsuki hated his pathetic and weak demeanour. He absolutely detested the way Deku always presented himself as this timid and meek guy, when inside there lurked something almost herculean.

"Kacchan, are you drunk?"

The car jerked to a halt as Katsuki stomped on the breaks.

"No. I'm not fucking drunk." He drove sensibly now, annoyed that Deku would assume he'd do something so fucking low. "I quit."

"You quit what?"

"Do I have to spell out everything, shit-for-brains?" Katsuki growled as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. "I quit drinking. After that night where you and Frog showed up, I decided that it was shit and I'm over it."

"Oh – well I'm really happy for you." Deku played with his fingers as he stared down into his lap, probably trying to find a nice way of saying something shitty. "Uraraka is a really good influence on you."

"It wasn't because of that dumbass!"

It was exactly because of that dumbass.

"I-I didn't mean it that way!" Deku's nerves spiked to the point that Katsuki could imagine him with a shovel, digging his own grave. "I just meant that you've changed."

"Why the fuck does everyone act as though I'm so different now? I got the same shit from Ma and now you as well!" Katsuki found his way out of the suburban maze and started cruising onto the highway.

"You spoke to your mother?" Deku was rendered speechless, which was a first in the entire lifetime they'd known each other and at any other time Katsuki would treat the moment with reverence. However, right now, he wanted answers.

"Buddy when someone asks you a question, generally you don't answer with another fucking question."

They sat in silence while Deku thought about what he should say and Katsuki considered all the ways he could possibility intimidate the loser into dropping this line of questioning.

"Kacchan, after we went to middle school together did you talk to all our old childhood friends?" Deku was doing the lawyer thing where he spoke with leading questions that brought Katsuki down a road he didn't want to go down, "Fuck no."

"That's just it. These last couple of weeks I feel like you've done a complete one-eighty. You used to be… a lonely, drunk _asshole_ – excuse me for saying that, I really don't mean to hurt you, I'm just trying to be as honest as I can – now you've quit drinking and you see us and talk to us regularly and you even talked with your mother," Deku started choking up as though he was about to cry again, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm just so happy that you're yelling at me again."

"Dude."

Katsuki was disgusted with himself. Not because Deku was bringing up fine reasoning on a part of his psyche that he wasn't aware of, but the fact that he allowed the useless fucker to get to him. Maybe he did have a tendency to throw away relationships that offered no clear benefits to the direction he wanted to take in life. Who cares? It's not like you can't just up and make new connections and relationships. His parents could deal with his moods anyway, they fucking raised him to be the person he was – yeah, they're the ones at fault – not him.

Turning off the highway, he drove towards the industrial estate as Deku looked up, wondering where they were going. If Deku was going to get to him, he'd do the same.

They drove in absolute silence for a while as less and less cars flew past on the dingy road.

"Hypothetically speaking…" Katsuki began, not quite sure why he felt the urge to open up. "If someone you cared about spent god knows how long training to be a stripper – I'm talking yoga for flexibility, real respect for the pole; the bitch thought it should be an Olympic sport-"

"What is it you're asking me?"

"How the fuck would you feel if your lady waxed her whole damn pussy so that she could get to work and hustle? I thought only porn stars did that, man!" Katsuki rubbed his forehead, because it blew his mind just to think about it. "She went the whole fucking nine yards."

"I'm not going to talk to you about Tsuyu in that way." Deku mumbled as a deep blush spreading across his freckled face like wildfire, "I think that this is one of those things that you should just keep to yourself and not talk about."

"I was in the fucking delivery room for your first, dingus!" Katsuki scowled, just thinking about the blood and horror like it was a scene from an alien movie or something, "I also know she's in the water for a living so, obviously she's as bare as the Sahara Desert."

"Where are you going?"

Katsuki knew that Deku meant where are we going in terms of location, but he decided it added to the suspense if he pretended to misinterpret him and go with where he was going in terms of conversation.

"Right," Katsuki cleared his throat, hiding his smile behind his fist. "Imagine this hypothetical girl didn't fucking go through with stripping, not because she didn't want to, but because of a really damn lucky twist of fate."

"Er-"

"C'mon dude, keep up!" Katsuki lost his patience, because he didn't want to keep talking about his stupid fucking _concerns_ any longer. "How would you feel about it, shit-stain?!"

"Uhmn-" Deku thought about it, but his eyes glanced towards the direction they were taking every now and again with his thoughts almost entirely fixated on their destination, rather than Katsuki's theoretical predicament. "Well, a lot of people prepare to do things that they never end up doing. It's the reason we think – so we can plan out scenarios and our thoughts die or go through harm instead of us."

"What the fuck does that even mean?"

"Well – for instance you could be driving me somewhere remote so that you can murder me and from what I can see, you're preparing to do so right now, but at the same time you can rationalise that it's a bad idea because I have a loving family that would worry about me and call the police if I don't come home tonight, and a neighbourhood of witnesses that saw me get in your car. Also without a great defence attorney like me around, you would go to jail for a long time."

There wasn't much Katsuki could say to argue with that line of reasoning and all the fun and impulsiveness was lost when Deku caught onto his ruse so quickly. He wanted to at least have Deku out with a shovel digging a hole somewhere isolated and then maybe call it a day. Now, all that was left was to go back to the original plan. That wasn't to say that Katsuki was not mildly disappointed that they couldn't enact something from an old mafia film.

Swinging around, he did a U-turn and made his way back to the highway.

"Anyway, I wouldn't judge someone based on something that they were planning to do. You should judge people on the content of their character, not their chosen profession. It means so little in the grand scheme of things, I think." Izuku mused, a small smile on his face as he imparted his wisdom like a tiny freckle-faced sage.

As Izuku's words sunk in, Katsuki realised that his morning wasn't as successful as he originally thought. In fact, it was more a failure than anything. He allowed Ochaco to shoehorn herself into whatever negative connotations came along with being a stripper when in fact, she hadn't even done anything even vaguely stripper-like, from what she had admitted to him.

It probably didn't help that time he called her a skank, either.

Katsuki had made her feel she was somehow unworthy, when something so fucking stupid as her preparing to strip didn't even matter that much in the grand scheme of things, borrowing the artful phrasing of the _intellectual_ in his passenger seat. What made him pause and frustrated him to no end was a cynical inkling in the back of his mind assumed that she was omitting something dark and twisted about her past from him.

Maybe she had a taste of that world in the form of some creepy old dude or even giving a lap dance. He knew enough from being a cop that nobody just stumbles into a drug den looking for a job, there was always something else going on. Even now, he didn't believe her and thought the worst, despite the fact that she was the same dorky idiot that had never been kissed.

That's right – he could tell that she was awkward and new to kissing. Ochaco probably hadn't even seen a man naked before from the way she looked at him in the shower. She was clumsy and shy but everything she did was so genuine and full of love that it made up for it.

Hell, she was so innocent she could barely handle an orgasm, so there was no way she could go from a shy virgin to a whore getting fucked for some dope. Katsuki didn't know why he drew that connection in his mind.

Not only that, she was trusting and gullible – maybe she did just accidentally get wrapped up in the underworld, an unsuspecting victim snatched up by a sleazy fucker baiting her with lots of cash.

"So, did you take me out to talk about hypotheticals or-"

"You're going to be my best man." Katsuki didn't laugh or try to fuck with Deku anymore, now that his thoughts were so damn sober, "I wanted you to help me pick out a ring…" The next part, Katsuki struggled with like he was pulling out his own nails, "You always knew her best."

"You're proposing to Uraraka?" Deku smiled and all the psychological torture Katsuki inflicted seemed forgotten. "I didn't know you guys talked about marriage."

Again, the dweeb rained on his fucking parade by bringing up a sore spot. He knew this was an impulsive decision and _of course_ , he wasn't just going to rock up and get on one knee and ask her straight away. Katsuki wanted to keep the ring as a reminder that he was serious about her, and he would ask her when the time was right. That day could be ten years from now for all he knew, it was just supposed to serve as a compass to direct him to the destination he eventually wanted to arrive at.

People talked like the key to success was working hard when no, the key to success was determining what you fucking wanted out of life and Katsuki knew already that he wanted Ochaco, no matter what skeletons were in her closet. If you really give a shit about something or want it, go for it and don't hesitate - because nothing comes out of putting all your energy into something without knowing where you wanted to eventually end up.

"We haven't talked about it." Katsuki sighed angrily, "But she is going to fucking marry me."

"Kacchan…"

"Don't give me that _Kacchan_ bullshit!" Katsuki echoed the whiny tone perfectly. "I said fuck all even when your eldest is five months too early to say your wedding was a well-planned and thought-out effort purely out of _love_."

"You did mention it." Deku's voice was deadpan, his jumpy and anxious attitude gone. "It was what half of your speech as my best man was about."

"I don't remem-"

"You were drunk."

Right now, the best course of action was an apology.

All Katsuki had to do was say those two magic words, 'I'm sorry', and everything would be right with the world and they could move past it and honestly, Deku deserved an apology. If he was in Deku's position, he would beat the ever-loving shit out of any guy that ruined such an important day, so this was really the least he could do. Taking a deep breath, he mentally prepared himself.

"Fuck you." Katsuki said.

Those were two magical words, but not the ones he was intending to say.

Deku cut straight to the chase, "Why do you want _me_ to be your best man? I thought you would want Kirishima or something."

Katsuki hated explaining his feelings. The reason you have feelings is because they are supposed to be emotions that you feel singularly and keep to your damn self, so why the fuck did you have to explain them to other people? Nobody asks about how you shit because it's supposed to be between you and your fucking toilet, no one else. Why was this any damn different?

"Because I want you to!" Katsuki yelled, except intimidation didn't work on Deku at this very moment.

"That's not a reason!" Izuku shouted back, as they both took a second to take their eyes off the road and glare at each other.

They couldn't just have a staring match in the middle of driving because before a winner would be decided they'd probably end up wrapped around some tree. Focusing on the road, Katsuki sighed angrily as they sat in silence again. This really wasn't how the day was supposed to pan out, but this was just how things were. They were like oil and water, and that would never ever fucking change.

"Do you want to know the reason I made you my best man?"

"No." Katsuki answered quickly.

"Well, I'm going to tell you and you will listen!" Deku huffed, his hands planted on his knees. "I made you my best man and the godfather of my children because I've known you virtually all my life, and I know that you'd take care of my family if I died. I know that we don't see eye to eye but regardless, I love you like a brother!"

Katsuki whistled as he figured out the turn-off that they needed to take to get to the little boutique he spied a couple of times when he'd done the rounds in the patrol car. It'd been so long since he'd worked that he seriously missed the joint. He missed the thrill and the satisfaction of beating up bad guys, mostly.

Probably because of Deku's emotional and touchy-feely outburst, he wanted to focus on anything but what Deku said. However, everything considered, the feeling was mutual between them. He knew that if anything happened to him, Izuku would be the first person to step up, take charge and take care of things. They knew each other well enough to believe that with every part of their being, and Katsuki would stake his life on that fact, as much as he fucking hated Izuku.

Since Katsuki didn't respond or even spare a glance at Deku, every semblance of confidence seemed to seep out and he was back to being the snivelling and apprehensive man-child he was before.

That made things easier when they got out of the car and walked inside the jewellery store.

The shop wasn't by any means Tiffany's and Katsuki's natural inclination was to find the most expensive ring in the vicinity so that he could wow her by only gifting her the best. That wasn't how Ochaco operated though, she was all for sentimentality and buying her something to her tastes and all that other mind-reading shit.

This was where Deku came in. They stood side by side, overlooking the glass at each tiny ring lined up in neat columns and rows, the price tag tastefully obscured. Izuku took his role seriously, muttering to himself as he tried to remember Ochaco's exact tastes.

"I absolutely adore seeing couples choosing rings together!" A nosy cashier cooed at them like they were the cutest thing she'd seen all day, "Can I help you two with anything?"

"I'm not-"

Deku immediately raised his hands defensively, but before he could say anything, Katsuki wrapped his arms around his shoulders in a _very romantic_ headlock.

"We're good, thanks."

They waited for the lady to attend to something else before Deku looked up at him questioningly, wondering why they didn't instantly correct that assumption.

"You told me you loved me like ten minutes ago but now you're backing down when someone thinks we're gay together?" Katsuki laughed, shoving Deku away playfully. "She'll connect the dots eventually, don't fucking worry about it."

There was the illusion of timeless vintage themes within the shop, with rings wedged between old yellowing pages and large stones and necklaces on embroidered doilies. That still didn't change the fact that the harsh lighting was glaring down on the sparkling hoard of expensive gold and jewels and everything was encased in reinforced glass.

Katsuki spotted one of those new age books that go through what the gems _mean_ , as though they weren't just fucking rocks dug up from the ground. He had to do something sappy that Deku would probably do because Deku was the get hitched and 'happy wife, happy life', kind of guy that Ochaco always wanted to meet her down the aisle.

"Hey, Kacchan…" They stood together, one hand over the mouth and the other supporting the elbow as they leaned back and hummed, overlooking the case. It was a habit they picked up together from childhood where they had to cover their mouths, otherwise they would just verbalise their internal monologue, usually fanboying over All Might. "I can't really pinpoint Ochaco's tastes like I could Tsuyu's. Tsuyu was always straight-forward but if I remember correctly, Ochaco would always pick the cheapest options and not really anything she liked in particular."

They both hummed again, Katsuki debating whether he should use his one phone a friend to get Tsuyu down here so that he could get a woman to decide. To be honest, he knew she wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut and he was running the same risk with Izuku, but if they were both in on it, the freckly bastard would definitely fill his old lady in and she would rat him out to Ochaco thinking that he was probably trying to chain her down or something.

"Maybe she just likes cheap shit." Katsuki offered.

"I don't think so." Deku shook his head, glaring intensely into the distance. "I think that Uraraka deserves to be spoiled. I feel as though she grew up worrying about money so much that she never really got the best, if you know what I mean. You know her better than me so it probably sounds stupid."

"I know her better than you do?" Katsuki laughed it off, although internally his ego was spiking to dangerous levels.

"Well, if I wasn't here wouldn't you just buy the most excessive and expensive thing in the store?" Izuku said, laughing.

"In a heartbeat."

They smiled at each other and for once it wasn't weird or forced. They may not have been friends, but there was still an intangible bond between them and no matter how much Katsuki pulled away, they always seemed to just snap back together like a rubber band. The older you got the less things seemed to change and now that they were out of their volatile years, maybe they could start being more respectful to each other.

Deku opened his arms and stepped forward-

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"I thought we were having a moment…"

"No." Katsuki scowled. "Fuck off."

Katsuki went with his original plan and got the attention of the cashier with the click of his fingers like he was Bill 'Motherfucking' Gates ready to spend an entire country's worth of money like it was loose change, "Get out the best fucking _women's_ rings you got because I'm ready to spend some serious cash."

The lady took one look at the both of them as they raised their hands, Deku showing his wedding band and Katsuki without. Katsuki didn't want any confusion because he wasn't going to spend all his savings on a ring for fucking Deku. Maybe a normal person's reaction was to act mildly embarrassed or apologetic for the misunderstanding, but she was in retail, working on a commission basis and hungry for cash.

When the kit came out Katsuki set his eyes on the biggest rock he could see, a simple diamond the side of a baby's fist with a price tag that was worth the mortgage on a big house in the suburbs. Mentally he did the math on how many overtime shifts that was but the thought almost left him in tears.

Not that it mattered, he was willingly signing up for marriage which was indentured servitude anyway. He'd have the bank and Ochako as his wife duking it out, both clawing at his wallet.

And you know what?

Katsuki couldn't fucking wait.

"I want that one." He pointed at the big rock, but Deku redirected his finger quickly to something classier. He had this weird habit where whenever Deku touched him, he had to mentally stop himself from reflexively striking him. They had been through this song and dance enough for Deku to tense for the incoming hit – bold move, Katsuki would see if it paid off.

The ring was a lot less obnoxious for one but still equally extravagant. The diamond was a large oval, decorated with smaller diamonds in a simplistic band. The design was reminiscent of Princess Diana's engagement ring and carried a timeless vintage feel about it, much like the shop itself.

Overall, it was a good choice.

Deku held his breath in suspense while he waited for Katsuki's approval. They held each other's gaze until he nodded sternly and they both came to an agreement. That was until he realised that the ring was at least twice as expensive as baby fist.

The thought of all those dollars sunk into a measly little gem made the pit of his stomach sick as he filled out all the paperwork and registration. The lady said she'd call him when everything was sorted and checked out. All he needed to do now was find the money and write a cheque.

It was one thing saying he would crash head on into incoming soul crushing debt and another to live that reality. Was this how normal people felt after buying their first house?

They left the shop and Katsuki walked listlessly to his car, staring at his reflection in the window of the driver's seat. With his confidence and tenacity gone, looking back was a shell of the man he used to be. Izuku called for him worriedly, "Kacchan?"

Deku's innocent face stared back behind him and all of Katsuki's listlessness poured over the capacity of his being as frustration filled him to the very core. He glared, growling and trembling with the sudden urge to punch right through his windscreen at the curious face looking back at him.

"I'm on government pay you motherfucker how the fuck am I supposed to afford this?!" Katsuki turned and lifted Deku off his feet, shaking him. "Do you expect me to fucking do modelling jobs and hustle my stockbroker and bump the rent on my shitty investment apartments and work overtime and-"

Katsuki stopped, the gears in his head ticking over. Technically he could do all of those things sufficiently enough that he could potentially just breeze through this without having to hang out in a box with the bums wearing all his awesome old clothes down by the dumpster. Sure, it would be a challenge but when didn't he love a challenge?

"Actually, I'm completely fucking okay with this…" Katsuki mumbled, deep in thought.

"Eh?"

Izuku had done him a favour and this was the jump Katsuki needed to really motivate himself again. The reason he was so fucked in the head lately was because he didn't have that survival mechanism that kicked in whenever he was in a bind, and that high was what life was all about.

Reigning himself in, Katsuki brought Deku close and enveloped him in a bear hug, Deku's feet far off the ground as they dangling somewhere below his knees. Izuku's shoulders were broader than Katsuki expected and his body heavy with muscle, but he was still as short as ever.

Katsuki's comfort range for intimacy was maybe five seconds max. The hug was reaching well past that time frame and it was time to cut things short. He bent down to let Deku go but as he tried to stand straight Deku locked him in place with his arms around Katsuki's neck.

Izuku's face was buried into his shoulder and he could feel the warm wetness of tears. Katsuki's natural inclination was shove him off and drive away, effectively leaving Deku stranded, which was a very attractive proposition. It was just Katsuki couldn't bring himself to do it.

Maybe it was okay to stay like this for a little longer.

…

 **I would love to hear what you think and I hope you guys liked the chapter. It means a lot that you still read what I write even though I'm so damn flakey.**

 **I'm so sorry everyone.**

 **Love you guys lots and thanks again for dealing with my flakey update schedule.**


	13. Chapter 13 - Lovers

**Chapter 13: Lovers**

 **What a long, strange hiatus it's been!**

 **I'll give you guys a brief (and exciting) update on what's been going on with me lately. My surgery from last year went really well – they fixed up a huge problem that was causing me a lot of pain and affecting my health. Because I was able to get the surgery and remove the problem, I was finally able to fall pregnant and I had a baby on the 18** **th** **of November!**

 **I got married, we bought an old fixer upper house and moved in October and I had my 23** **rd** **birthday on the 10** **th** **of November. Money is painfully tight; a newborn is incredibly hard work (especially at night) but I have lots of time in the day to write (between sleep deprived naps) and I'll be updating regularly again.**

 **To celebrate, I wrote an extra long chapter and there is** **SMUT** **so you have been warned!**

….

Katsuki jingled his keys around his finger, shifting through until he finally felt the engravings of his apartment key. He hadn't locked the door when he had left – why would he when he's got someone siting tight in the apartment?

It was common sense that Ochaco would lock the door after he left. Clearly, she wasn't that naïve that she would leave the door unlocked.

Tentatively, he tried the knob.

It clicked and the door swung open with a simple tug.

Ochaco didn't lock the fucking door after he left.

Katsuki was fucking livid.

He did not give a flying fuck whether his shit got stolen. Hell, half the homeless people in the area were sporting his clothes thanks to Ochaco. What bothered him was the thought someone could have just waltzed in and hurt her.

He burst in with guns blazing, ready to rampage and tell the bitch how damn stupid she was. The rant was already processing, his brain ready to say fuck in every describable way possible because Katsuki wasn't just a wordsmith, he was a fucking wordsmith.

The only problem was Katsuki's first hurdle was already his kryptonite.

Ochaco was asleep on the couch.

She must have waited up for him and fallen asleep before he could get home. He did spend most of the night procrastinating and doing a lot of head banging against his steering wheel, hurting over how much money he spent on that stupid ring.

She looked so damn innocent when she slept that it was almost sacrilegious.

Even the devil would call him a dick if he woke that angel. It's not like she was in danger and nothing valuable was stolen so no harm no foul, right? Not that he wasn't petty enough to get back at her at some stage, just not right now.

Scratching the five o'clock shadow on his jaw, Katsuki hovered over her quietly before finally smoothing the hair from Ochaco's face. His lips twitched reflexively into a smile as her eyelashes fluttered, but the thought of her waking up and seeing him look like a goofy love-struck dumbass made him inwardly cringe, so he drew his brow down and tried to look tough.

Ochaco didn't stir and she slept like she didn't have a care in the world. She even snored a little. Well, she snored a lot, but in an endearing way.

Katsuki lifted her up in his arms and just held her for a moment, feeling the weight and warmth of her body, thinking about just how fragile she was. He loved the feeling of holding her and couldn't help but take advantage of the opportunity to cuddle the shit out of her. If she woke up, he could just say he was taking her to bed so she didn't kink her neck on the couch, or some other thoughtful shit that he would normally never think of doing.

The cute expression on her face when she slept made him tempted to be that kind of guy though. The Deku type that had to fight the urge not to put a blanket on someone when they were sleeping. The only urge Katsuki had to fight when he saw someone asleep was to not draw dicks in permanent marker on their face.

Katsuki was more a caveman at heart.

He would go to the ends of the earth and wrestle dinosaurs for his woman on the condition that he could knock that special lady over the head and take her to his cave and be the only man loving her until the day they died, hopefully ending in her dying first so that she didn't die slowly and painfully from starvation while his bones disintegrated in the belly of a beast.

In modern terms, Katsuki was an all or nothing kind of guy. Ochaco was either his lady, which meant that no one else was allowed to look let alone touch and he'd give her literally everything – except maybe life-threatening sexual illnesses or anthrax.

Or, they could just be friends and she could find herself some milquetoast fella that got his kicks out of stamp collecting or bird watching on the weekends. Then if he hurt her who knows, the lucky guy could find himself knee-deep in cement and sleeping with the fishes in Gravesend Bay.

Let's face it, regardless of whatever she decided, he had a soft spot for Ochaco. Especially moments like these when she didn't open her big dumb mouth. He couldn't help pressing a soft kiss on Ochaco's forehead, her skin warm from sleep.

"You'll always be my girl," Katsuki whispered in her hair affectionately.

Ochaco jolted awake with a sharp intake of air before she let out the loudest blood-curdling scream Katsuki had ever heard. The grating screech caught him by surprise and he did not anticipate her fist flying out and connecting with his nose.

He dropped her like a tonne of bricks and she hit the coffee table and rolled to the floor, clutching her back as she groaned. Katsuki would feel bad if he wasn't dripping blood by the gallon all over his floor.

The one and only way to really make a guy cry is hit him right in the nose. Right now, Katsuki was balling like a baby. God, it was like watching Million Dollar Baby all over again. The tears just could not stop no matter how hard he tried.

Katsuki needed to correct himself: Ochaco wasn't anyone's girl.

Maybe she was her daddy's girl, but everyone else had to step in line. Ochaco was a force of nature like gravity – yeah, she kept you grounded but at the same time, she was strong enough to pull meteors into your orbit.

"I think you broke my spine…" She whined as she rolled around on the floor.

She was fucking fine, it wasn't like she was spraying blood out her nose or anything.

"Yeah?" Katsuki's nasal voice made it hard to sound tough. "Well, you just fucked up my face. You know what they say – an eye for an eye."

"A nose for a spine makes the whole world something, something…"

Katsuki could taste the blood in the back of his throat as he snorted. Blood bubbled out from his nose like lava and he smeared more on his arm to make it stop. She laughed too, holding her ribs to dull the bruising like it was nothing.

It was in that moment that he realised they made the perfect fucking couple.

She would have bruises on her ass for weeks and he looked like he'd fallen face first in front of a bus but fuck, how could he not look at that smile and hear that laughter without feeling a million bucks?

"I fucking love you."

They both stared at each other in silence.

Katsuki could taste the blood as it dripped past his lips and collected at the base of his chin. Practically the only sound in the room was each droplet falling on his floor.

Probably because of all the blood loss, there was a brief lag before Katsuki realised what he'd just said. Ochaco's smile fell and she stared at him in disbelief, her face turning almost purple as she gaped, her mouth opening and closing like a fish. When his words finally registered, Katsuki felt the heat rise to his face and he clenched his jaw, waiting for her response.

"Let me get you a towel to stop the bleeding," Ochaco mumbled unsteadily under her breath as she scurried away.

Katsuki trailed after her, processing his mixed bag of emotions. On one hand, he was angry that she didn't have the guts to face him with an answer and on the other hand, he was absolutely fucking mortified that she just shrugged him off like that.

He could get down on his knees and put a ring on that girl, fuck her till she screamed the alphabet of an alien language and it wouldn't bring him any closer to understanding her enough to know if he mattered to her or not.

Katsuki sat down on a bar stool and pinched his nose as he brooded, mad beyond belief. Still, Ochaco smiled tentatively and pressed a tea towel against his nose, "This is the second time I've cleaned you up like this. I'm starting to feel like a full-time caregiver."

'Full-time caregiver', more like a wife.

Katsuki grunted, unwilling to play the sarcasm card even though that's what he thought.

"Don't be mad, it's not like I hit you hard enough to bend it like Owen Wilson's." Ochaco smoothly deflected, "You're still going to have women drooling over you, like always."

"What's that supposed to fucking mean?" Katsuki bit back reactively.

He was never capable of keeping up the silent treatment.

"I just know that you're the love 'em and leave 'em type," Ochaco tried to shake off the tension with a smile, but when that didn't work, she grew serious. "It was meant as a compliment."

"You mean I'm not the stable, mild-mannered guy that collects stamps and plays golf on the weekends?" Katsuki ripped the towel from his face and threw it on the floor, the bleeding long since stopped. "Fuck you, bitch!"

"I'm fucking reliable, I've got my own god damn apartment and a respectable career that makes me want to kill people most days, but I love my shitty ass job!" Katsuki roared as Ochaco stooped down and picked up the towel, ignoring him completely. That just seemed to make him even angrier, "Sure, I like women and I've fucked a lot of them, but I've never loved a single fucking one."

Ochaco walked away as nonchalant as ever, however, he noticed how she clenched the tea towel and felt vindicated that he was getting to her. It wasn't that Katsuki wanted to hurt her, he just didn't know any other way to tell a girl he liked her other than to pull on her hair. "Am I just not good enough for you, princess? You still waiting for that knight in shining armour to-"

She grabbed his arm and flipped him down onto the floor. Katsuki fell like a tonne of bricks and aside from the pain, déjà vu hit him the hardest. Ten years ago, she'd done the same thing when he was caught up in one of his relentless tirades and maybe Ochaco was on to something. All those years of anger management were useless, all he needed was an ass kicking to calm him down.

Ochaco straddled his chest, looking down at him with frustration. "It's not that you're not good enough. You are the most amazing person in the world to me and even though it's kind of creepy sometimes I stare at you while you're sleeping because you're the fastest thing to recharge my happiness meter - I'm crazy about you. It's that I'm not good enough."

They both glared at each other in silence, neither willing to back down.

"Is this your shitty version of it's not you, it's me?" Katsuki scowled. "You trying to make me fucking feel better?"

It did make him feel better.

"Why does everything have to be about you and how you feel? What about me?!" Ochaco banged her hands on either side of his head and quietly shook as the impact of the hardwood sent pain down her wrists. "You call me a whore and act like I'm not good enough for you because I've got a history and you expect me to accept it when you suddenly confess that you're in love with me? Are you stupid or are you really that selfish?"

"Yes, I'm really that fucking selfish!"

"Then which one is it? Am I good enough or not good enough?!" Ochaco huffed, "Maybe instead of listening to you I should just trust my own judgement and not mess with trouble, and you are trouble!"

Katsuki grappled her down and pinned her body against the floor. Ochaco resisted in any way she could, resulting in a painful scratch down his neck and bite marks on his shoulder. That didn't bother him one iota, it was nothing he wasn't used to and he found it pretty sexy.

"Look toots, I'm not good with words. I would rather rip my face off and set myself on fire than talk about feelings and all that shit." Katsuki inwardly cringed at the thought of telling her how he really felt. "So, when I-"

Katsuki stopped talking and sighed.

"You know what? Fuck it." Katsuki tried his best to start from scratch, "I already put it out there. I fucking love you, Ochaco."

She had a way about her where whenever that happy façade shattered, her face looked different, as though she were another person entirely. It was like all her goofiness and whimsical optimism vanished and all that was left was someone that was just… tired.

"Do you really feel that way or is this your subconscious telling you this is the only way to sleep with me?" Ochaco sighed, turning her head to stare at the wall. "I know I don't come off as that smart, but I know people and I know what people are like. You're great in so many ways, Bakugo – but you're flaky and you always want to win. Is this your way of trying to 'win' me right now? Pinning me to the ground and yelling at me?"

Katsuki moved his hands from her wrists and backed off as though he'd been stung, moving his weight to his knees as he sat back. He couldn't look her in the eye. He felt guilty.

"I know you're intuitive, it makes you a good cop." Ochaco smiled, albeit bitterly. "You've probably figured out already that I've done more things than I let on. I haven't told you because I know you don't want to know and you're angry at me for that. Both for not telling you and for doing it in the first place."

The floor seemed so interesting to both of them now, as they both looked down.

"But just because you're angry at me doesn't mean it's okay to do the one thing that hurts me."

"And what's that?" Katsuki asked, his voice low.

"Love me."

The moments ticked past in tense silence.

"Urgh…" Katsuki scowled, rubbing the nape of his neck furiously while he glared down at her. "Cry me a fucking river."

His philosophy was everybody had shitty hang-ups. You either figure them out so you can get on with life or you accept it as a part of yourself that will probably never change and move on from there. The one thing you didn't do was have a fucking pity party about it.

"You jerk." Ochaco frowned, perplexed. She pushed past him and stomped into the kitchen and he heard the vague sound of things opening and slamming in her wake, "This is why we can't talk honestly about anything!"

He followed her with a headache slowly worming its way through his skull. He pinpointed the pain right on the side of his forehead as he listened to her racket.

"I made you dinner, stupid." Ochaco slammed the plate down on the counter, still steaming from the microwave. "Maybe if you weren't doing… whatever it was you were doing, it'd be straight out of the pan instead of heated up like a frozen meal like the rest of the garbage you eat!"

She froze as he banged his fists on the bench loudly, like a barbarian.

"You wanna know what I was fucking doing?!"

Ochaco stepped back, her arms crossed protectively over her chest. He'd seen that pose over a thousand times while working as a cop and it never spelled anything good, it was usually when he pushed people too far.

Take deep breaths, calm down.

This wasn't the time to tell her that he was totally committed and wanted to put a ring on her chubby little finger and possibly die together in an old folk's home surrounded by their children and grandchildren. She'd just look at him like he'd grown two heads or something and all that effort would backfire and knowing Ochaco, she'd run for the fucking hills. Hell, if he was a girl, he'd run from him too.

"Look, you got the wrong idea about me toots."

"Then talk to me…" Ochaco sighed, rubbing her hand through her hair. Her fringe stood up on end and she looked just about as tired as he felt. "Please."

"Okay, just sit the fuck down." When she took a stool across from him, he scratched his head, a little embarrassed. "I'll give you all the dirty details. The good, the bad and the ugly. Then you can make up your mind about me. Maybe even tell me something about your shitty life, yeah?"

She perked up hearing that, as though maybe all he had to do to make her happy was just stop being so close-lipped about everything. It was easier said than done, he didn't really like talking about himself. Well – that wasn't quite true. He didn't like talking about the bad things about himself.

Still, he loved her and hated the thought that she didn't want him based on the fact that he wasn't readily available to anyone else. If he wanted something or someone, he'd go to the ends of the earth to do it. It's just he'd never been ready, interested or found a girl worth it to try.

In many aspects, he was new to this whole love thing.

Ochaco nodded and stole a piece of his steak while she put on her best reporter voice, "So how did you become Bakugo Katsuki, lady killer?"

Katsuki played with his food while he thought of what to say. She cooked him the typical working man's dream – a big steak, mashed potatoes, and vegetables with corn on the side. The only thing that was missing was a beer, which admittedly he craved more than oxygen right now.

"I used to have this weird sense of entitlement when it came to women."

"Oh honey, I can't imagine you being like that at all." Ochaco cooed sarcastically, a big grin across her face.

"Shut the fuck up." Despite his harsh words, he laughed. "So here I was, your typical great shape, captain of the football team and top score for every class kind of guy and then when it came to girls, I always fell short. I never had any dating experience in high school – I just thought that shit would work out eventually if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I get it." Ochaco's eyelashes fluttered down in thought. "It's like how you think that things are just going to work out someday like it's your destiny. But then reality kicks in and you wonder where the time went..."

"I wanted the dream." She reminisced, "I wanted to be like Cinderella and I wanted to be saved by my prince, but when you're a kid you never think that there are other princesses out there that are more suited than you to be with your prince charming. You never think that there are people forward enough to take what you feel is yours. I was too immature back then to figure out that no one belongs to anyone and playing the waiting game doesn't actually work. Life comes at you fast, doesn't it?"

Bakugo disagreed. He was hers from the moment he laid eyes on her over a decade ago. He just didn't realise it back then.

"Yeah, bet you never thought you'd end up sitting around with the dragon, huh princess?"

Ochaco smiled thoughtfully, "You know, I actually wouldn't have it any other way. I know we fight all the time, but you can't help that you're rude and mean."

That bitch.

He stopped to eat once in a while and occasionally looked up at her from his food, Ochaco's face breaking into a big dumb grin every time they made eye contact, her cheek resting on her palm and the other nursing a cup of joe.

"So, since you know me so well you've probably figured out what happened next."

"I can give an educated guess?" Ochaco hummed, "You rudely asked a girl why she didn't want to have sex with you, she told you exactly why and you took it to heart and mulled over it for ages and then after a string of rejections you finally figured out that-" She mockingly drew in a sharp breath of surprise, "Women like to be treated like people too!"

"Firstly, that's not exactly how it happened." Katsuki paused between chewing and waved his fork towards her menacingly. "Secondly, fuck you."

"It's not like I don't think women are people or that they're any less than me. You think I could have sick ideas like that and still be raised by a monster – I mean mother – like mine?" Katsuki muttered defensively. He digressed, "I just didn't know how to be nice… to anybody."

Katsuki could feel the heat creeping up his neck and felt beyond ashamed. Talking about his own faults wasn't one of his strong suits, especially when it came to dumb failures. It wasn't like he was particularly special though. Who didn't have an embarrassing past?

"So, I learned how to not be a massive dick, I got in through the door, fucked more girls than I could drunkenly recall and never realised I was doing anything wrong," Katsuki said, his heart squeezing like the memory was as raw as it was yesterday. "Then I met this one girl-"

"Wait, wait!" Ochaco interrupted his train of thought, effectively crashing it off the rails. "What do you mean doing something wrong? How can you be bad at sex? Isn't it a natural and human thing to do like eating or breathing?"

What a fucking virgin.

"Fuck, are you actually going to make me explain it in detail?" Katsuki sighed, his hands riling up his hair as he lectured her impatiently, "It's like when you just fuck someone with very little foreplay and you just… I don't know, rail them hard and fast and then when they actually get a feel for the rhythm and are close to cumming, you throw that out the window by abruptly changing positions. Say you feel ready to nut and you don't want it to end so you flip her over and fuck her doggy style and by then she's lost the build-up she needed to cum. It's like a fucking rollercoaster. You can't just suddenly stop on the way up."

It took a while to register all that information into Ochaco's brain, as her expressions changed from blank, to confused and then embarrassed. She was probably still in the same frame of mind he was back then, where being part of the internet generation and having porn so easily accessible, you think great sex is like a porno. Rough thrusting, loud moaning and changing positions every five seconds and fucking for an ungodly amount of time that would leave any normal person sore and as swollen as the balloons at a sweet sixteenth.

"Now if I can get back to the story." He paused, glaring at her for a moment to see if his star student would raise her hand for any more questions. "I met a girl and she clearly wasn't into faking it. I don't think she wanted to be there at all, let alone have me breathing down her neck at the party we were at. All the girls before her used to fake it and scream out and all that shit, but she just laid there with this disappointed look on her face."

"I want to meet her. I want to be her best friend." Ochaco giggled, her face even redder now that he was giving all the dirty details.

"Maybe a minute or two in, I just couldn't stay hard staring at that face – it was so bad it reminded me of getting detention and the look the teachers would give me while I just sat there - so I lost my temper and asked her what the fuck she wanted me to do." Katsuki rubbed his brow and smiled wolfishly. "She was a girl who knew what she wanted, I'll give her that."

"She must have been…formidable." Ochaco said as she tried her hardest to choose her words carefully, "To have expectations like that, much less towards a stranger."

"Best way to describe it is like those traffic controllers with the batons, waving cars left and right. Up, down, to the left – no, the right – that's the spot, keep going. You get my drift?" Katsuki grinned, "She really was something else."

The memories flooded back as he played with his food, as though it was only yesterday. There was something inspiring that came with thinking about how you used to be and where you are today, as though every tiny bit of improvement was part of a journey – your journey – towards success. It was so easy to see it in hindsight, but so demoralising grinding through each passing moment.

"We stayed up all night and she taught me everything I know today."

He felt relieved to tell someone something so personal and secret, but at the same time, his chest tightened with the regret that a memory so important to him had now lost a little bit of magic by being transformed into words. It sounded dumb when he thought about it, but these experiences were a part of who he was and to put that vulnerability on display made him feel like a dog exposing its belly for a scratch.

"I just wanted so badly to do everything perfectly, that by the time she stopped criticising me and just loved how I made her feel, I could finally start actually enjoying it." Katsuki felt raw when he spoke. "Even though I have never given a flying fuck about what people think about me, I wanted-"

He wanted to impress Ochaco, showing even the worst of himself.

"You wanted her to accept you." Ochaco finished, smiling. "All of you."

This is why Katsuki loved her. Ochaco understood him enough that he didn't need to say the things that made him feel weak.

"Between sex, we talked about everything. By the end, I knew who she was, who she'd planned to be and everything, from the first guy who broke her heart to what she ate for breakfast that morning. Even though she was a pain in the ass, I liked her and more than anything, I respected her." For a moment, Katsuki got caught up in the memories. "Towards the end she started looking at me like how you sometimes do, smiling at me but at the same time looking like you're about to cry."

Katsuki didn't mean to say the last bit, but he felt so candid right now that he couldn't help it. The floodgates had opened and now that he'd told her these shitty pieces of himself – the little fuck-ups that got him to the point he was today, he felt like he could tell Ochaco anything.

"Did you love her?"

"God no."

He didn't even hesitate.

"Wait – what?" Ochaco raised her brows and frowned at him reprovingly. "You made love to this girl like you were the only two people in the world."

"Baby, I didn't even know her name, can't remember it if I tried." Katsuki grinned, devilishly.

"You are an asshole." Ochaco wrinkled her nose with disgust, stealing his last piece of steak. Before she popped the meaty cut in her mouth, she reiterated, "Asshole with a capital A+"

"You know me, I like being the best at whatever I set out to do."

He braced himself when she rose from her seat, thinking she was going to throw the jug of steaming hot coffee at him. Instead, she poured him a cup and slammed it down on the bench top. She always did have a knack for hospitality.

"Anyway, that's my tortured past done." He ended, taking a sip of coffee.

"No, that's not the end." Ochaco leaned forward and Katsuki could almost see cleavage through the neckline of her shirt. "What happened in the morning?"

"It was just as cliché as you could imagine. Sun started streaming through the windows, she climbed on my lap. It was slow and intense and we just kissed and held each other like it was our last day on earth." Katsuki said, without even a slither of emotion leaving his voice.

There was something about the finality of it that stung, even though it happened over half a decade ago. The only thing he could equate it to was saying goodbye to an old friend, knowing that there would never be a chance that you would ever see them again.

Ochaco broke him out of his stupor by retracing the memory. She crawled onto his lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, looking down at him with a smile full of tenderness. "I'm sorry. I was wrong about you."

Hearing her say that was worth more than a million bucks.

"You weren't wrong about a couple of things."

"Oh yeah?" The warmth of her breath fanning his face.

It was one of those moments again. He could feel that classic quality of intimacy come over them, where even time seemed to get the hint and leave you alone together for a while. The world just goes quiet and everything falls away except for that other person you've got wrapped around your body.

Katsuki had just eaten, but he felt ravenous. He fisted a handful of Ochaco's hair and kissed her roughly, wrapping his arm around her waist to somehow bring her even closer to him. She grinded against him and met his ferocity with something even more carnal and before he could lose control he slowed down, expressing his kisses with more affection than need.

As he broke away her fingers flew to her swollen lips, and Katsuki took the opportunity to nibble on her ear and whisper sweet nothings, "I want you more than life itself."

When he said that she cupped his face in her hands and stared deeply into his eyes. Katsuki didn't know what she was looking for or what she could see, but he was hoping that she could find some hint on how much he genuinely, viscerally, desired her.

"I'm yours." She whispered, bringing her lips over his and deepening their kiss. "If you'll have me…"

"I'll have you six fucking ways from Sunday if you'll let me," Katsuki growled, grinding his erection hard against her pelvis.

He held her ass so she still remained glued to his waist while he rose from the stool, using his other hand to swipe at the cups and plates to make room for her body. The porcelain toppled over and shattered on the floor with a crash and Ochaco squealed, elated by his spontaneity.

The rest was a blur, as they tore at each other's clothes like wild animals, simultaneously trying to kiss and viciously rake at each other's flesh. He was already so beaten and bloodied that the adrenaline transferred the pain into pleasure and the deep sting from her nails against his back when she tried to tear his shirt over his head made him so fucking turned on, he felt like he'd die if he couldn't be inside her.

There was nothing sweeter than when his skin pressed naked against hers, sharing the searing heat, smouldering together like embers in a blazing fire. Katsuki had never felt this way in his life. He felt drunk and thirsty simultaneously, like the taste of her skin intoxicated him to the point of oblivion but if he drew his mouth away for even a second, his body would explode from the inside out like a meteor meeting the atmosphere.

As he sucked on the skin between her neck and shoulder, Ochaco let out a sound he'd never once heard in his life. It reminded him of a sigh, mixed with her own soft voice and made utterly musical by a quiver, as if her whole body hummed with arousal.

If it was anybody else, he'd laugh, record the sound and make Deku guess what kind of bird call it was. Since it was Ochaco, the sound drove him absolutely fucking insane to the point he felt so lightheaded that he was sure his body had its priorities straight and was ready to sacrifice every drop of blood dedicated to his brain and organs and send it directly to his dick.

Katsuki was affronted by the sight of her shorts, still buttoned and tight around her waist like their mere function was to cover her. He tore at the fabric with distaste, nothing more satisfying than when the button popped off and instead of bothering with the zip, he tugged so roughly down her thighs that her panties followed suit.

His hands were shaking when he drew a condom from his wallet and ripped the foil apart with his teeth. Katsuki was relieved when her clumsy hands undid his belt and his jeans pooled over his ankles. He waited, seemingly for a lifetime, to see if she would pull his cock from his briefs, just to see how her hands looked wrapped around his length to keep the memory for a rainy day, but Ochaco was just as petrified as he was.

"Kacchan…"

Disregarding her hesitant gaze, he let his dick spring free and rolled the condom over his painfully hard erection.

"W-Wait…" Ochaco mumbled, pushing his shoulders back. "Kacchan, wait!"

He couldn't wait. He loved her too fucking much.

"Stop!" She cried out, her nails digging deep into his shoulders.

The head of his cock was positioned right at her entrance and with just a little pressure, even the slightest thrust, he'd be inside her. He was already sandwiched between her thighs so there was no way she could wriggle out of it if he did.

"Katsuki!"

He couldn't do it.

Katsuki crumpled, resting his head against her shoulder while he calmed himself down. She was shaking like a leaf beneath him and he breathed in her scent, totally drunk from every part of her. He loved her too fucking much and the thought of hurting her nearly destroyed him.

"It's okay, I'm not going to fuck you." Katsuki was surprised by how threatening his voice sounded when he intended to be reassuring.

Ochaco looked like a deer in headlights, her whole body frozen like a Greek statue. She was so tense that if he pushed her over, she would shatter like the plate on the floor. He rubbed warmth into her arms and tried to be as gentle as possible, more so for himself than for her.

Katsuki was like a rubber band pulled so far apart that it was ready to snap. He'd never made it so far, only to have to stop so quickly and his mind was reeling from the inertia. For some reason, he felt betrayed by her rejection, despite being able to rationalise why she wouldn't want to lose her virginity getting roughly fucked on a kitchen counter.

"I'm sorry – I shouldn't have started this." Ochaco pulled away, covering her breasts with her arms.

"You're right," Katsuki agreed. "You shouldn't have."

He groaned as he peeled the condom down the length of his painfully hard erection, a bead of precum at the very tip. Ochaco watched with interest as he tucked his cock back into his boxers, manoeuvring his length to the side so that it didn't poke out from his waistband. While he did so, Katsuki couldn't help but return her gaze, focusing on the pink, wet folds between her legs. She was as wet as he was hard and there was no part of 'I won't fuck you' that meant that she wasn't allowed to get off. When she finally got her eyes off his cock, she noticed his wandering gaze and slapped her thighs together with surprise.

Katsuki coaxed her close to him but she hesitated. After a few moments of tense silence, he reiterated what he had said before through clenched teeth, "I'm not going to fuck you."

Ochaco visibly relaxed and with a demure smile, she said, "Well, when you say it like that it sounds like you don't really want to."

It was like she was trying to piss him off. Then she made everything okay with a simple hug as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

Katsuki gave her ass a squeeze as he lifted her up and brought her into the bedroom. Ochaco was silent, but it was comforting, intimate.

When he set Ochaco on the bed, she laid back lackadaisically despite being entirely naked. Her breasts were perfect, even when they were flattened against her chest as she laid on her back, stretched out like a cat in the sun.

There was nothing sexier than confidence and Katsuki always prided himself in his presence – his magnetism – but standing there looking down at her made his palms sweaty, like a prepubescent boy trying to speak to the girl he liked.

He should have laid down with her, touched her hair or rubbed her stomach – anything. Instead, he sat at the edge of the bed, hunched over as he rubbed his face with his hands.

"Are you okay?" Ochaco asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"No."

"Are you mad at me?"

"No." Katsuki groaned, uncomfortable that he couldn't just mull over things by himself. "I'm mad at myself."

"That's dumb," She laughed, "Why?"

"Shut up."

Ochaco wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed the top of his head. Her body was warm and soft against his back and she hummed, trying her very best to rock him back and forth despite how much he resisted.

"It's kind of funny." Ochaco mused, "I've always wanted to be something I'm not. Sometimes when I see people working hard and being strong or being sexy and captivating, I want to try being that too."

Katsuki couldn't find any words to say. He thought up a couple of reassuring phrases, but none felt right.

"I always thought you were strong and confident and good at everything. Everything just worked out for you, always. You always knew what you wanted." She said, running her hands over his shoulders. "But to hear that you stumble too – that you are kind of awkward and bad at things and you make dumb mistakes that any normal person would be able to figure out not to do-"

"Get to the point."

"I just think you're cute." Ochaco laughed, "Kacchan I think you're really, really cute."

"Cute, huh?" His voice was barely audible.

Katsuki threw her back and pinned her against the bed. Before she could think, he bit down on her bottom lip and kissed her roughly, forcing his tongue between her lips. Ochaco tasted bitter like coffee but she was so sweet when she moaned and licked him, her hips grinding against his thigh.

Ochaco pushed him away and Katsuki braced himself for the cold shower ahead, but instead, she held his shoulders tightly and looked up at him and said, "Is it going to hurt?"

"Not for me, at least." Katsuki gave her his most charming, wolfish grin.

"This is the time you're supposed to stop acting like a bastard and reassure me." Ochaco dug her nails into his shoulders, waiting for the impossible.

Again, he thought of all the useless platitudes under the sun that he could say to her, to try to beg or cajole her into fucking him. Then Katsuki decided fuck it, he'd just tell her the truth.

"Yeah, I'm not a nice guy. I'm a bastard." Katsuki grinned. It wasn't a great way to start, but it was his way, "I'm going to lick your pussy until you're on the verge of cumming, but I'm not gonna let you get off."

Ochaco struggled underneath him but when he nibbled and licked the sweet spot near her collarbone, she was like putty in his hands. "Then when you've lost how close you were to release, I'm going to fuck you with my fingers. You think it feels good rubbing the clit? Wait till you feel the G-spot, baby."

She tried to speak, but all words became jumbled when he rolled his tongue over her nipple, the other held hostage between his thumb and pointer as he squeezed. "And guess what, sweetheart? The only way I'm letting you get off is if I'm eight inches deep inside of you."

He made his way down her stomach, kissing and tasting her skin.

"Are you trying to torture me?" Ochaco groaned, lifting her hips as he teasingly licked her navel.

"You've been torturing me since you stepped through my door in that tiny Chinese dress." Katsuki was at his breaking point, but he kept his voice steady. "That's what we do. We torture each other."

"How am I supposed to torture you back in this situation?" Ochaco's voice broke and she looked on the verge of tears by how sexually frustrated she was.

"We'll share the pain," Katsuki said, decidedly. "Ochaco I'll let you do anything to me. You can scratch me, bite me and even hit me. Do it when it hurts most – hell, you can do it even when you feel good."

"Kacchan, you'll make me cum?"

Her voice was so fucking sexy when she was desperate.

"Only with my cock deep inside you."

Katsuki was so close he could smell how wet she was and it drove him insane. He could feel it in his bones. If she said no, he was going to fucking die right there on the edge of the bed.

"I thought you said you weren't going to fuck me." Ochaco ran her hands through his hair, looking down at him tenderly. "I want you to – Katsuki, I want you - but I'm scared."

"I'm scared too," Katsuki admitted, after a brief pause. "I'm really fucking scared I'm going to fuck this up because I can tackle a guy down and restrain him in my sleep but I've got no clue how to show you how much I fucking love you. At least not without fucking the god given shit out of you."

"Oh, honey - that's so romantic, did you get that from a movie?" The sarcasm lacked the bite and was sickly sweet, but it made him smile. "Your blunt honesty is something I've always loved about you though."

Ochaco's words brought Katsuki up on cloud nine and he showed how happy her words made him the only way he knew how. She moaned as he swept his tongue over her clit, tasting and smelling her complete arousal. Ochaco bucked her hips against his mouth in response and he did everything he could to hold her down. Her taste was addictive and he wanted to lick and suck on her soft flesh until he could taste her orgasm a thousand times over.

She took what he had said wholeheartedly, raking her fingernails through his scalp and pulling his hair hard enough to rip it out every time he tried to pull away, but he had to. She was already on the brink and he fucking had to.

"Kacchan, please don't stop!" Ochaco begged.

"Fuck." Katsuki groaned. He stood up so that he could bring distance between them so that he could control himself. When Ochaco said his name like that it made him weak.

She got on her knees and grabbed his arm, establishing the electric connection between them once again. "Kacchan I want to just make love. I don't want to wait…I-I want to feel good."

That's exactly what he wanted to hear, but he wasn't going to go back on his word. At least that's how he felt until she pulled down his boxers and gripped the base of his cock with her fist.

Ochaco's eyes never left his as she opened her mouth wide and sucked the tip of his dick, her tongue lapping against the head of his cock urgently like it was a popsicle on a hot summer's day.

"Ah, fuck…" He groaned, a rough and guttural sound that made her sink her lips down the length of his cock slowly.

She was inexperienced and occasionally he felt the rough sensation of her teeth against his skin, but he could tell that Ochaco enjoyed it as much as he did and her enthusiasm went a long way.

When she got a rhythm of stroking and sucking going, Katsuki was completely fucked.

He'd never kept eye contact with a girl while they were sucking him off before and the intimacy of her chocolate brown eyes never leaving his face made him fall in love with her a hundred times over. Every time she drew his length deep into her mouth and moaned, the vibrations of her pleasure brought him close to blowing his load right down her throat.

Wait – why was she moaning?

Unless she was born with a G-spot where her uvula should be, there was no way sucking his dick felt that good.

Katsuki peered down and finally cracked the case.

Her hand was cupped over her pussy and she was rubbing over her clit while sucking his dick. From the look on her face, she was as close as he was to cumming and if she had it her way, his load shooting into her mouth would be what she needed to drive her over the edge.

Katsuki tore her hand away and brought it up to his mouth, rolling his tongue over each finger as she did to his dick. Even blindfolded he knew that taste more than any other flavour in the world.

It took godlike self-restraint to pull away, but she gave him no choice.

Katsuki collapsed on top of her and pinned her down with each hand, ceasing all stimulation to bring her further and further away from climax. Ochaco fought against him, trying to grind against his skin to find some way to release the tension but he just wouldn't let her. Frustrated beyond belief, she bit down into his shoulder hard enough to draw blood and he growled, taking the brunt of the pain until she tuckered herself out.

He eased his grip around her wrist and slipped his fingers through her wet folds, easing slowly inside her. Ochaco squirmed away but slowly he settled his finger right to the hilt, probing at first to get her used to the sensation.

She seemed sceptical at first, scrunching her nose up and looking at the ceiling as she tried to pinpoint how it felt until he rubbed against the rough wall of the g-spot and she gasped, her muscles taut as her back arched up with pleasure.

Painstakingly slowly, he eased his finger out and gave her a moment of respite while she figured out her feelings. Then he slipped his finger back in and arched so that he prodded the sweet spot dead on.

Ochaco squeaked and her fists curled as she gripped the sheets, her breathing heavy. She watched him from downcast eyes, her lips parted and she nibbled on her bottom lip with anticipation. He followed a rule from her playbook and his gaze never left hers as he fucked her with his fingers, tantalisingly slow.

As he kept up the pace, she responded to him more, her hips meeting the palm of his hand while she moaned and cried out, "M-More!"

Katsuki obliged, inserting a second finger while she grinded her hips wildly against his hand, trying to set the pace faster than what he was willing to allow. His fingers were cramping from the awkward curled position to pleasure her and he felt as though if he kept going, he was going to prematurely cum just from the sight and feeling of her clenching around him.

"Kacchan, I'm ready!"

He practically dove for the bedside table and yanked off the draw from the hinges, pulling his condom packet out and throwing everything else aside as he ripped the foil and slid the latex over his aching cock.

Without warning or hesitation, he gripped his cock and thrust his entire length inside her, right to the hilt. His whole body quivered as he revelled in the feeling of her enveloping him completely, hugging his flesh with liquid hot arousal.

For a moment he felt too guilty to look at her, so caught up in his own need that he didn't consider the pain she might be experiencing. Ochaco pressed her palm against his cheek, forcing him to look. Instead of seeing pain, he saw undeniable love, relief, and happiness.

"I love you," Ochaco said.

There just weren't any words to describe how he felt about her right at that moment, so Katsuki collapsed down onto his elbows and kissed her softly. How could he possibly say that right then and there, he was willing to give up everything – his career, his house, his money, even his life – just to have her look at him the way she did right then.

He brushed Ochaco's brown hair from her face, feeling the softness of each strand between his fingers and letting the supple smoothness of her skin seep into his memory. He could see every pore and chart the gradient of red to pink on her cheeks, his thumb plotted the curve of her lips and his eyes registered every eyelash as her big brown eyes flickered up at him.

Katsuki felt as though he'd seen God.

"I could die right now." He muttered, completely entranced.

Ochaco laughed softly.

"Please don't." She whispered, nuzzling her nose against his.

She wrapped her legs around his waist and gave him a gentle squeeze and he was brought back to reality. His hips moved instinctually, thrusting with her rhythm as she held him hostage in her embrace.

Katsuki gripped the back of her thigh, tilting her hips higher so he could fuck her deeper than before and the tender moment was lost in the carnal need to push each other into oblivion. Their voices reached a crescendo driven by the beat of the bed as it creaked, rocking into the wall.

"Kacchan, I love you!"

She clawed his shoulders and back until each scratch felt like fire and seared him to the core. Katsuki watched as she trembled and gripped him tighter, arching her back as she came closer and closer to orgasm.

Katsuki couldn't hold himself back any longer. He pushed her legs back further and came as deep inside her as he could reach, her walls squeezing him tight and milking him each thrust as they both came together.

He collapsed, totally spent, and she held him to her breast and stroked his head while they caught their breath. When he looked up at her face, she smiled back at him with tears falling from her eyes.

"What's wrong with you?" Katsuki mumbled, groggy.

That came off as harsh, but he didn't mean it that way.

She looked down at him, perplexed, before wiping her cheeks and rubbing her eyes as though she didn't realise herself that she was crying.

"Nothing's wrong," Ochaco mumbled as she wiped her face. "I'm just happy, I think."

Katsuki lifted himself up and Ochaco panicked, holding him tighter into her embrace. Usually, he had no patience for clingy girls who liked to cuddle after sex, but right now there was nowhere else he wanted to be. It was just he had to do his due diligence first.

"Hey," Katsuki cupped her face and looked her steadily in the eye. "I'll be back before you know it."

He cleaned himself up in the bathroom and came back with a wet hand towel, pulling her thighs apart as he wiped her down. She stared down at him with a shy smile and let him really look at her. She didn't bleed that much, only a soft pink tinge on the hand towel. Not nearly as much as he bled from the damage she did to his back and shoulders.

"I thought it was going to hurt a lot more than this." Ochaco murmured, cupping her mound the minute he pulled his hand away. "It does kind of hurt now, but it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be."

Katsuki listened and nodded, but he tended to drift into his thoughts after sex. It was as though the high point was lost and nothing could compare with how good he felt seconds ago. When he sank into bed beside her, she tangled her limbs around him and brought him back to reality.

There just weren't words to describe how much he fucking loved her.

"You're not sick of me now that you've finally slept with me, right?" Ochaco asked, half-jokingly.

"Don't laugh at me, okay." Katsuki said, Ochaco smiling expectantly back at him, "But I want to keep fucking you until you're old and busted."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"You can take it or leave it, baby." Katsuki grinned as her nose curled up in mock disgust.

They laid together in comfortable silence, soaking in the smell of sex and the reassuring warmth of body heat until Ochaco crawled up onto his chest and kissed him softly.

"I'll take it." She whispered.

…..

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **Please review and tell me your thoughts, I'm a little self-conscious since it's been a while but I love to hear what you think.**

 **Much love guys, I really appreciate your support over the past couple of years.**


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